Role of Agriculture in Reaching Gifted and Talented Students, The

NACTA Journal, Sep 2006 by Cannon, John G, Broyles, Thomas W, Hillison, John H

One hundred seven (57%) of the respondents to the survey had completed high school. Of those students, three were not currently enrolled in a post-secondary institution. One was a partner in his father's dairy farm, and the other two planned to attend college in the future. Of the 104 students who were enrolled in a college or university, 45 were freshmen, 35 were sophomores, 23 were juniors, and one was a senior, and their mean college GPA was 3.28 on a 4.0 scale. Four of the students sought associate's degrees. Virginia Tech was the most popular institution among respondents, with 57 VGSA alumni enrolled. The University of Virginia was second, with 13.

All 82 current high school students who responded to the survey reported that they plan to attend a college or university upon graduation. Forty-one voiced an interest in attending Virginia Tech; for 29 students, Virginia Tech was the only choice. Three students were planning to enroll at Harvard, and eight students were undecided.

All alumni were asked about the influence of the VGSA on their choice of post-secondary institution. This was a Likert-type question, with one being no influence and five being much influence. The mean score for the entire sample was 3.37, with a standard deviation of 1.45. Fifty-five students responded that the VGSA had much influence (five), while 33 responded that the VGSA had no influence (one).

Table 2 provides results by gender, FFA membership, and 4-H membership. The mean for females was slightly higher than for males. An independent samples t test was performed on the two means, and no statistically significant differences were found. The mean for FFA members was higher than that of non-members. Another independent samples t-test was performed on those two means and showed that the means were not statistically different. The mean for 4-H members was higher than non-members, but an independent samples t-test indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the two means.

Statistical analysis for residential background and race/ethnicity is found in Table 3. To factor in residential background, students from small towns (population less than 5,000) had the highest mean, but an ANOVA test revealed that the perception of VGSA influence on post-secondary choice was not statistically different when comparing the size of home community. Similarly, while Black students had the highest mean, means of the different racial/ethnicity groups were compared by an ANOVA analysis and no statistical difference was found.

From the findings, the VGSA on average does not have an overwhelming influence on its alumni's choice of post-secondary institution. However, Virginia Tech had by far the most alumni enrolled and was the dominant choice of alumni who had not completed high school. Four weeks may be a short period of time to convince students to attend a particular institution, especially given the notions that students bring with them from their homes, communities, and schools, but the VGSA provides potential students with exposure to Virginia Tech that they would not otherwise receive. Research from the Pennsylvania program produced similar results. Hoover and Houser (1991) showed that after completing the PGSAS, a slightly higher percentage of students expressed interest in an agricultural career than had upon arrival at the school. Research from the late 1990s indicated that by providing students with access to agricultural education opportunities, the PGSAS led to higher enrollments in colleges of agriculture (Nordstrom et al., 1999).