Plant Sciences Undergraduate Student Involvement In Professional Organizations and Conferences, University of TN, Knoxville

Horticultural organizations and symposia provide great opportunities for students to network and increase their knowledge about certain areas of the field.  These events can also be great chances for students to find and interact with future employment and internships both by networking and through the organization itself.  Many horticultural organizations are 501(c) – 3 non-profit associations.  Typically these organizations have very low numbers of undergraduate student members.  An online survey was used to determine how involved students are in professional groups and societies related to their major, how they are informed about opportunities to participate with these associations, how they would prefer to be contacted, and if they attend conferences related to their major.  Surveys were made available to all students online with specific emails to Plant Science undergraduates.  Completed surveys were retuned by 25 (18.5% response rate) student participants.  Although 64% of respondents were not involved in horticultural organizations, 92% of respondents acknowledged that such organizations are at least somewhat useful to Plant Sciences students. About 60% of survey respondents had never attended a horticultural conference.  Results of this survey will be provided to organizations and schools in conjunction with ongoing efforts to increase student participation in horticultural organizations.