The number of exotic pets in households is increasing rapidly and veterinarians willing and able to treat them do not seem to be increasing at the same rate. Establishing an externship program has numerous benefits including keeping veterinarians up to date, the ability to share practical knowledge learned in practice, increased career satisfaction, and the ability to recruit and provide a prolonged interview process in the form of an externship for upcoming new graduate veterinarians. There are numerous steps to establishing a functional and attractive program for students, including establishing an externship coordinator and ideally, an externship team consisting of veterinarians, licensed technicians, assistants and client service coordinators. If the externship coordinator is not a practice owner, compensation for additional work should be discussed, particularly if the employee is on a pro-sal or production-only pay structure. Establishing an extern schedule, list of recommended reading and supplies, and expectations for the extern are all covered, in addition to tips for advertising your externship program and recruiting student externs that want to practice exotic animal medicine. Continuous evaluation of the program in the form of feedback from staff and externs is vital to ensure expectations of the clinic and extern are being considered and met. * This lecture could be a 1 hour masterclass or could be lengthened to 2 hours as a Masterclass/interactive lecture to develop practice-specific tools to utilize for an externship program.