The undergraduate animal sciences curriculum requires you to participate in an experiential learning activity to expose you to many aspects of animal sciences and offer you an opportunity to engage in learning at a personal level. Opportunities to fulfill your experiential requirement can include internships, research, study abroad, and more. These experiences will allow you to demonstrate your capacity to solve real-life problems in real-life environments and provide you with insights that will help you explore your career interests.
This requirement is fulfilled through at least one graded hour of enrollment in ANSC 398 and completion of a work product that will allow you to reflect upon your learning and relate your experiential learning to other parts of your curriculum. You can also enroll in ANSC 398 for satisfactory/unsatisfactory credit, but these hours will not count toward the 1-hour requirement. If you are interested in different experiences, you may take the course for up to 10 credit hours over the course of your academic career.
ANSC 398 is open to animal sciences majors and minors, as well as students from other majors. Additionally, undergraduate research in a different department on campus or an off-campus internship could be used for ANSC 398 if it is related to animal sciences. If you plan to do research in a different department, please contact the ANSC advising team to learn more about the process
Planning your ANSC 398 experience is up to you. It can be almost anything you want it to be as long as it is an experience that relates to animal sciences. Please see the steps below to get started.
ANSC 398 Memorandum of Agreement
Prior to beginning your ANSC 398 experience, you must consider the following:
- What activities will be included in your experience?
- What do you plan on learning (i.e., what are your goals)?
- If you are taking ANSC 398 for a letter grade, how you will document your learning with a work product?
- If you are completing an internship with an outside company, your supervisor will be involved in this agreement as well, so what is their email address?
- What are the dates and average hours per week you'll be working?
The Memorandum of Agreement spells out these details and is approved by your faculty instructor.
This Memorandum of Agreement must be completed prior to beginning your experience. Please note that you cannot count hours of experience before approval of the MOA has been officially received. Once you submit your online MOA, you will be contacted with details on how to sign up for credit.
Steps to Complete Experiential Learning Activity Requirement:
- Decide what type of experience you would like to.
- Internship Opportunities
- Undergraduate Research Information
- Study Abroad Information
- Find a faculty member who teaches courses, conducts research, or performs outreach in an area of animal sciences related to your planned experience. They will act as your instructor for ANSC 398 and help you plan your experience and expectations for a work product. Some experiences already have a faculty instructor in charge of the internship. If the internship is listed on the departmental page, please contact the faculty member listed for your ANSC 398 faculty instructor.
If you are having difficulty finding a faculty member to act as your instructor, send an email to the ANSC Academic Advisors so they can help you find one. Your faculty instructor must be a member of the animal sciences faculty even if you are completing an undergraduate research experience with a faculty member from another department or college on campus.
- You must complete a Memorandum of Agreement with your faculty instructor before starting your experience. If you are planning a summer experience, the MOA must be completed during the spring semester prior to your experience. Students who do not achieve the deadlines set out in their Memorandum of Agreement can expect their grade to be penalized. If a need arises to revise your Memorandum of Agreement due to unforeseen circumstances, a new agreement must be signed by you and your instructor.
- After your MOA is submitted, your faculty instructor will be notified via email and will need to approve it. This is an automated system, so you do not need to worry about contacting them.
- After your faculty supervisor approves, you will be assigned a CRN and number of hours. This will come from an automated system.
- After you receive your email, you must register for the class in your Enterprise Self-Service.
- This whole process will take 1-2 weeks.
- Enroll in ANSC 398 during the semester you complete your experience. If you complete your experience during the summer, you should enroll in ANSC 398 in the fall after your summer experience. If you need summer hours, please contact and ANSC advising team for information on how to set that up. Otherwise all summer work will be added as a fall class.
- Complete your work product as described in your Memorandum of Agreement. Submit this work product to your faculty instructor for comments and grading. Your grade will be determined from the following criteria at the discretion of your faculty instructor:
- Demonstration of new learning
- Breadth and depth of information presented
- Appropriateness for the intended audience
- Evidence of thoughtful effort
- Clarity and ease of understanding by the intended audience
- Integration of new ideas with other parts of the animal sciences curriculum
- Originality
- On-time completion
Additional requirements
- You must be in good academic standing to enroll in ANSC 398.
- To use a summer experience for ANSC 398 credit, you must complete the Memorandum of Agreement prior to the end of the spring semester.
Questions regarding this course can be directed to animal sciences advisors at ANSCadvising@illinois.edu or your faculty supervisor.