 I'm James Endres Howell, I'm faculty in the Department
 of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences and I oversee
 our undergraduate programs in Toxicology and
 Immunology and Infectious Disease. Students who are passionate
 about Immunology and Infectious Disease tend to be
 students that are interested in science and want to change
 the world. So we get a lot of students who are interested in going to
 medical school, students were interested in research careers,
 and increasingly there’s a large students who come in
 who are interested in public health, particularly global public health.
 These are science majors.
 And they're fairly difficult majors among the majors at
 Penn State. The students who succeed in these majors have
 really strong science backgrounds from high school. 
 They need to not be afraid of math but they need
 to really have a strong interest in molecular and cell biology.
 But also an interest in epidemiology
 so the population level analysis
 of infectious disease
 around the world. It's not
 necessarily so obvious to
 students, but it turns out that, for instance,
 we don't call it “swine flu” and “bird flu” for nothing.
 So influenza, for example, is one of
 these disease that we call “zoonoses” in other words there are
 animal reservoirs for, in this case, a virus.
 So the connection
 to veterinary medicine is very direct and very
 important. But more broadly,
 the safety of food that comes from animals,
 or the issue of zoonoses
 diseases that can come from
 animal reservoirs and infect human populations
 makes the connection between animal health,
 human health, and, in particular,
 infectious disease really a direct one. Students who finish
 the degree in Immunology and Infectious Disease
 tend to go to medical school or to
 PhD programs, to pursue research careers,
 or into masters or
 doctoral programs in public health. There are also students
 who finish and get
 employment right away after 4 years as research 
 technicians but I think it's fair to say that the
 majority of our students go on to professional training
 either in medical school, research PhD,
 or public health
 graduate programs. It turns out, actually, that research is
 crucially important for
 really any career path in
 science. No matter what you think you want to do
 with the degree in Immunology and Infectious Disease.
 So research experience is key
 because no matter what field of
 employment you go into in science, having
 the direct experience of how the experiments are carried out
 and how science actually happens
 is something that will be a portal to you even if you go to work for a 
 drug company and work on the marketing side or the regulatory
 side. Actually understanding how those drugs work
 and how their development will give you a leg up
 for advancing in those careers. Needless to say
 if you're going into medicine or research, having a
 research background will help you too. There's no
 career in science where you won't have an
 enormous advantage by having research experience.
 So if you're at Penn State or any university
 and you go through 4 years of a science program like
 Immunology and Infectious Disease and you don't take the
 opportunity to get research experience,
 you're really missing out.
