Modern agriculture offers a variety of career opportunities to new college graduates; however, there is a shortage of potential employees trained for positions that serve this diverse industry, according to Nancy Tibbitts of the campus Internship and Career Center. "There is particularly a shortage of graduates in the plant sciences," says Tibbitts. "During the 1980s things were really tight in agriculture. Many parents in rural communities advised their children not to pursue careers in agriculture." Graduation figures from UC Davis' College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences reflect that reluctance to pursue agricultural careers, with the number of graduates from the college falling from 1,392 in 1979 to an estimated 1,059 in June of 1991. Tibbitts suggests that the ag graduate of the 1990s must be multitalented, with a balanced education in the sciences, business and applied agriculture. And with many businesses now operating in the international arena, it certainly helps to be fluent in a second language, she says.