Written by: Emily Pliscott, Agricultural Communication & Marketing and Applied Economics Major Hometown: Kenyon, Minnesota After I finished the spring semester, I hopped on a plane with two suitcases and took off for the summer. I lived in Washington, DC for three months while I interned for National Farmers Union, a grassroots farm organization that advocated for farmers in Congress. During this internship, I dived into government relations, membership, and education for the organization. My responsibilities ranged from completing accounting tasks to attending committee meetings on Capitol Hill. I was amazed each day as I walked past a clear view of the U.S. Capitol on my way to work. I spent an entire summer in the place “where it happens” and was on the same block as large news stations that broadcasted all the way back home. I was able to meet people who were working in all my interest areas, from economics to policy to dairy, and sat down to coffee with professionals who seemed excited to get to know a student interested in their career fields. While so many pieces were exciting and even overwhelming, it was also a strange transition from small town Minnesota. The work and even the traffic walking down the street was faster paced, and I had to read daily news to keep up to date on the issues we focused on in the office. Throughout this summer, I learned more about the legislative process in Washington, DC and how an organization served its members. Even more, I realized the importance of having farmers and people in rural communities speak out to impact policy. The people elected to represent us are human too, and real stories and real people influence their decisions to create a better life for all Americans, especially the rural Americans.
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Written by: Eva Doornink, Agricultural Communication & Marketing Major Hometown: Baldwin, Wisconsin This past summer I was the Communication and Marketing Intern for Alta Genetics. Alta Genetics is an elite company that provides dairy and beef producers with genetic and farm management information solutions that improve herd quality and productivity. I was based out of Madison, Wisconsin for the duration of my internship and worked primarily within the brand-new office. However, I spent many days out on farms with salesmen to learn more about the company and the products they provide. I started my internship in May, where I immediately began planning Alta's annual marketing showcase. I was able to visit numerous dairies within the Central Plains area in order to create promotional pieces and build better relationships with the host families. I worked very closely with Chrissy Meyer, Alta's Global Marketing Director, as I developed many marketing pieces throughout the summer. Through this internship I improved my design skills with programs such as; InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop and developed applicable promotional items for Alta. I explored all aspects of media including; design, photography, videography, social media, podcasting, drone videography, and catalog design. I was able to fully enhance my knowledge about the products and services Alta provides for customers, using this as a platform for writing opportunities. However, marketing was not the only skill I gained through this internship with Alta Genetics. I experienced intense employee training where I gained a new perspective of company culture. I learned the core mission and vision of Alta as I built strong relationships with numerous company leaders. I gained more knowledge about reproductive management and the importance of genetic planning.
Towards the end of my internship, I was able to assist with Proof Week. During these intense five days, I was able to witness some of the company's most important decisions alongside Alta’s employees. As an intern, I always felt very valued and trusted. I made hundreds of connections through this internship and built very strong relationships with my mentors. I feel incredibly passionate about Alta Genetics and truly believe in their mission. I am very thankful for this internship opportunity and I truly could not have asked for a better experience. I look forward to working with Alta during the school year. By: Jack Taylor, Agriculture Communication & Marketing Major Hometown: Burnsville, Minnesota During the past summer, I worked as a field intern for Sound Agriculture, a biological research company. Although the company was based out of California, I worked primarily in Minnesota. The main duty I had as a field intern was to help with the coordination of research trials in my territory. Through this role I served as a brand ambassador for Sound Agriculture. My responsibilities included speaking with trial participants and asking them key questions to build grower profiles and gathering any relevant information to help with the logistics of the trials such as planting and application dates. These tasks were completed by driving out to the trials myself and then communicating what was recorded with shared documents or spreadsheets made by the company. It was my duty to reach each of the trials in a given time frame, but it was my choice to schedule each day out the way I wanted. I believe that flexibility and solving problems under pressure were extremely important for this role. Growing up in a suburb instead of on a farm, I was new to many things in this position. I had never before had in depth conversations with farmers about how they earn their living. I learned a large amount of information that was directly applicable to things I previously learned in the classroom. This job helped me build my navigational skills both driving out to trials, and when I was deep in an eight-foot-tall corn field taking samples. The hands on experience and discussions with these growers helped me understand things more clearly. My knowledge of agriculture and current growing conditions increased tremendously because of the work I completed this summer. Written by: Catie Schmidt, Agricultural Communication & Marketing Major I spent my summer internship with Sand Valley Golf Resort where I was an Event Coordinator Intern. I worked alongside the Groups department creating marketing menus, setting up to create great events, building strong customer service relationships, and creating protocol for the years to come. Sand Valley is a new resort and we were the first group of interns. One of our roles was to create many documents to help the future interns. A few weeks into the summer, some of my managers sat me down to discuss a change in my role. They offered me another opportunity to help the on-course outlets manager. The on-course outlets would be the beverage carts, turn food stands, and a snack shack called Craig's Porch. My duties involved creating a whole new system to keep a correct track record of inventory, making many different procedures for all the different outlets such as opening, closing, and cash bank drop, and menu creation and prices. I was often asked why I was working at a golf course considering I am studying Agricultural Communication & Marketing with an emphasis in Crops and Soils. My answer was always simple, I wanted to experience the table side of the "farm to table" movement in agriculture. I could have easily worked with the agronomy department with on-course turf management, but I wanted to see how a restaurant would market their dishes to guests. They buy their proteins from local butcher shops, and they also grow their own herbs and spices in a community garden on property. They also have chickens on the property to help guests understand how chickens grow and the kind of the environment they create and live in. I am super happy and humbled to have been given such an opportunity to work and have my internship with Sand Valley Golf Resort this summer.
Written by: Megan Mathew, Agricultural Communication & Marketing Major I spent the summer after my junior year as the marketing and communications intern at Environmental Tillage Systems (ETS). ETS manufactures and sells the SoilWarrior, equipment that strip-tills land. They primarily sell in the Midwest, but also internationally. Since they are a small company, my internship covered many aspects of business. I created content for social media, traveled to trade-shows and events, planned events, and completed many other tasks. I was able to grow my customer relation skills by speaking to seasoned and potential customers at events and learning their perspective on agriculture and how they benefited from the SoilWarrior. I do not have a background in agriculture, so this internship forced me to dive head first into this industry. I had to learn the basics of farming and tillage, the culture and how people interact with each other, and how to market for this audience. This task was extremely daunting, but I took it slow. Day by day I would take notes on things I learned through my coworkers, twitter, and articles. This way I was able to build up my knowledge of the industry and could apply it to my work on social media and in customer relations. A challenge I faced in my learning involved the bad weather we had early summer. Because of the weather farmers were not running the SoilWarriors, so I could not see the machine that I was marketing run. Once the tradeshow and event season started in August, I had the opportunity to watch the SoilWarrior run twice a week in different states and on different kinds of farms. This allowed all the information I was accumulating to piece together and finally make sense. By the end of the summer I had a wealth of agriculture knowledge to apply to my classes and future career. Key learning experiences I had over my 14 week internship involved interacting with people in the industry. The marketing director and coordinator at ETS gave me plenty of guidance to allow me to excel in these experiences. Attending the National Strip-Till Conference educated me on different perspectives in agriculture. After talking to agronomists, business professionals, farmers, and families, I fully understood the audience I was marketing to. I also gained an appreciation for the hard work and dedication that goes into agriculture. Another part of my internship was sitting in on meetings. Although this may not seem very interesting, I learned the importance of networking and representing the company, because it could lead to beneficial partnerships. Being professional and running meetings efficiently is an acquired skill, and now I have the building blocks. Over the course of the summer I had many opportunities to learn the value of agriculture, and now I can use these skills in my future career in the agriculture industry. Written by: Cyrus Gottlieb, Agricultural Communication & Marketing Major My internship was at Rush River Scenic (RRS), a set building company based in western Wisconsin. The company has many big clients in Minneapolis including Best Buy and Target. My role at the company was to work on set at different photo studios around Minneapolis and help with marketing, especially with the company’s social media. It was interesting to work on marketing for a company that primarily sells business to business because individual consumers are unlikely to purchase a set themselves. One of the most difficult aspects of working in a creative field is that everything is not always set in stone. An art director may change their mind about a certain project and force you to start again from the beginning. Working with producers can also be difficult because everything on set must fit into their vision exactly. This can mean moving parts of heavy sets to different places in a room for hours until everything is just right, then tearing down the set so that they can set up for something else the next day.
Connecting with a lot of different professionals in the creative world was one of the most valuable parts of this internship. I met many set builders, photographers, producers, and even some executives. Building connections and figuring out how people work sets up a lot of potential advancement in the field you want to work in. I think that I may continue to work at RRS because it provides some amazing opportunities to work on sets across the country and expand connections. 12/13/2019 0 Comments internship spotlight: STGeneticsWritten by: Catherine Thompson, Agricultural Communication & Marketing Major As a junior in Agricultural Communications & Marketing, I interned with STgenetics in their call center in Middleton, Wisconsin. Throughout my time at ST, I was involved in distributing promotional materials, assisting the call center sales representatives, and preparing for events such as trade shows. I also achieved a more in-depth understanding of the dairy genetics industry. Going into my internship, I was hesitant about my stance on sales and a potential career in sales. My internship with STgenetics was very valuable in the sense that I grew to enjoy dairy sales, specifically the opportunity to assist farmers and their farm’s needs by selling ST’s products. A unique takeaway I gained from my internship at STgenetics was the opportunity sales has for growing personal relationships with their potential and current customers. I think it is important to build these relationships and understand the potential customer’s needs prior to selling a product because the product will essentially sell itself.
Another lesson I gained from my internship was the relationship and chemistry between marketing and sales. For a sale to occur, the customer must be familiarized with the product. It is then the job of the sales team to get the product to the customer. Marketing is also essential to sales because of their role and knowledge in consumer trends. Marketing utilizes analytics of consumer trends to most effectively reach their goal audience. Written by: Emelia Melson, Agricultural Communication & Marketing and Applied Economics Major This summer, I interned for Bayer Crop Science under the DEKALB Asgrow Brand in Michigan. As a U.S. Row Crop Sales Intern, I had a very independent internship that allowed me to explore what career path I want to take in the future. Our only directive for the summer was to complete projects that added value to the territory and the company as a whole. Although my title was in the sales division, all of my projects revolved around making marketing materials to enhance sales in the territory because not a lot of seed is sold in the summer. I truly believe that I could not have had a better internship to help guide my future career. The opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and move out of Minnesota truly helped me grow professionally and personally. Much like all Midwestern states, Michigan suffered from a very wet planting season that caused challenges for all farmers and everyone connected to the industry. Not only did I get to work with the very passionate and knowledgeable salespersons at DEKALB Asgrow Michigan, I also had the opportunity to explore other facets to the company such as Bayer Chemistry and Channel Seeds. Working with my mentor, I was able to structure projects that added territory value working with research promotion, dealer surveying, and videography.
I had many great learning experiences this summer. If you were to see me this summer at an event, there is a good chance you would have seen me behind a camera! I learned more about videography this summer than I ever thought I would. I also learned how to structure and give a sales pitch. Agronomy was a key focus for me this summer, learning how to identify weeds, diseases, and insect damage. On top of all of my key learning experiences, I learned about agriculture in Michigan everyday. It was very cool to be able to compare how Michigan agriculture and Minnesota agriculture are both different and similar. I am excited to be able to take my summer experience and bring it with me into my future career! Written by: Cassidy Murray, Agricultural Communication & Marketing Major I had the amazing opportunity to be an intern for a small food marketing company called Foodist Films. Foodist Films does video marketing for dedicated food brands. They create and develop video marketing strategies to effectively engage customers with their favorite foods, focusing on what fans crave most – authenticity. As the marketing intern, I managed company social media accounts, created content for the website and various blog posts, and filmed food videos using Adobe Premiere. I also prepared and ate the food at the conclusion of the video, which of course was the best part. I felt extremely grateful for this opportunity at the start. My boss Alex, the company’s founder, is transparent and helpful. She willingly answered questions and provided feedback whenever I asked. Having a boss who gave a lot of direction ultimately helped me perform better. Four other interns worked alongside me so I could turn to them for help or guidance as well. The biggest opportunity I received while working at Foodist Films was being able to expand my cooking skills. I really enjoyed cooking and learning how to cook. As a college student, I don’t have much time or patience to cook for myself on a regular basis so being able to go to work and practice cooking and preparing food was refreshing. Lastly, I had great experiences along the way. I was able to control the company’s social media accounts, which I really enjoyed. My generation lives on social media so it was nice already knowing the ins and outs of different platforms. My goal when posting on Instagram was to have a call to action at the end of the caption. If I posted a food video that we made that day, I would add “tag someone who you would share this dish with” or “comment your favorite food,” intended to engage with followers. I also created blog posts for the company’s website. Some examples included The Top 8 Food Videos of 2018 and Top Reasons Why Your Blog Needs Video. I liked being able to create my own content and research food videos/blogs, although that did make me really hungry. Written by: Alex Gustafson, Agricultural Communication & Marketing Major I participated in an internship program with the YMCA at a day camp called Camp Ihduhapi. Having worked there as a counselor in the past, I had certain expectations upon being brought onto the team again as a nature educator. While other counselors predominantly were in charge of basic day camp, I was solely in charge of the nature-based camps such as Junior Rangers and fishing camp. Since my first year at camp I have been passionate about Junior Rangers. It holds a special place in my heart because it teaches kids so much in a hands-on way that many would never experience otherwise. Junior Rangers is actually a camp brought to Ihduhapi by the National Park Service. During camp, park rangers taught the kids to make seed balls to promote conservation as well as identify important prairie grasses and animal species in our state. At the end of the week-long camp, kids swear an oath similar to the oath park rangers say when sworn into their job. This provides a unique sense of community and belonging among the kids, and they are often sad to leave by the end of the day. In the past when I would lead this camp, a group known as Wilderness Inquiry would also take the kids and their counselors on a four-mile canoe trip down the Mississippi River. This was always my favorite part of camp because of the opportunity to identify different wildlife along the river as we paddled the canoes, with the kids excited to learn more.
Despite the struggles I faced with other counselors and issues I had with some of the campers themselves, my time with Camp Ihduhapi was a good one. I learned a lot about how to deal with stress and how to best engage kids so that they enjoyed their time learning versus seeing it as another version of school. I also enjoyed the fact that this internship gave me several opportunities to work with park rangers and explore career opportunities with National Park Services. |
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January 2020
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