The Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program (DDCSP) was started in 2013 for the express purpose of increasing the number of undergraduate students from underrepresented groups who choose to pursue coursework and careers in conservation. The DDCSP at the University Florida supports this objective by selecting students who are passionate about breaking down barriers to diversity and preparing them in the skills needed for success in graduate school and conservation careers. DDCSP at UF provides students with independent field research projects, biweekly group meetings, mentoring, professional internships, a large professional network, and online classes addressing diversity and inclusion. Students complete surveys throughout the program – prior to beginning program activities, at the end of the first summer, at the end of the second summer, and following completion of the program. Surveys are used to assess students’ trajectories and changes in knowledge, confidence, and values. Here, using the basic survey structure of Czech, Krausman and Borkhataria (1998), we report on the conservation values of Scholars prior to entering the program and following completion of the program to determine whether conservation values changed following participation in the program and whether gender or race played a role in students’s (n = 50) ecological values.
Results/Conclusions
In general, the values attributed to most ecological parameters examined did not change following participation in the program. The value attributed to plants, fish, reptiles, birds, mammals, amphibians, invertebrates, and micro-organisms did not differ significantly at the two time periods, nor did they differ among races or between females and males. This is likely because students are selected for the program based in part on their passion for nature, and values were already high to start. Only two of the parameters examined showed a significant difference between the start and end of the survey. When asked whether laws “banning hunting, fishing, trapping, and wildlife harvesting of all sorts,” students were more likely to say no following completion of the program as opposed to yes or not sure (x2 = 7.8, p = 0.02). The change was primarily attributable to women, with students’ opinions changing from yes or no to unsure (x2 = 6.6, p = 0.04) over participation in the program. Students were also more likely to consider themselves environmentalists following completion of the program (x2 = 2.7, p = 0.0084), with no differences between genders.