Agricultural commodity group scholarships are viewed as recruitment tools. Career choices of poultry scholarship recipients on the west coast of the USA were analysed. Responses of recipients who entered non-poultry careers included reports of how they use information from mandated poultry courses, how they informally educate others about poultry, and how they volunteer with poultry youth programmes. Teachers told of using poultry examples in class. Other professionals gave accounts of disseminating positive poultry information in the course of their work. Poultry and other agricultural trade associations realise many unforeseen benefits by supporting worthy students, even when the students do not enter an agricultural career.