AGED 260 Undergraduate Internship

As school starts back up, it is a great time to reflect on what was an exploratory and rewarding summer as the AGED 260 Undergrad Intern. Working with Lisa Burgoon was a great experience, and I learned a lot about the educational world.

For the most part, my internship was broken down into two sections. The first part was spent in the classroom with Professor Burgoon and her teaching staff. I got very familiar with 103 Mumford Hall (pictured below). In here, I had the chance to watch the class from a third party perspective, and give advice to the teaching team about what I thought was working or not working.

103 Mumford Hall: AGED 260 Main Lecture Location

The other portion of my time was spent at the Illinois Leadership Center, where Lisa Burgoon's office is held. This is where her and I met to discuss the other portion of my internship. Aside from helping to improve the class, I was also responsible for creating online content that Lisa could use in her summer AGED 260 class. This is something that I had never done before, so it was a great learning experience! Being thrown into a completely new situation is intimidating, but it is also a great chance to learn about a new field.

All in all, this internship showed me an entirely new career field that I did not even realize existed. Working in academia is something that I am now considering. Oh, and if this experience sounded like something you would like to do, contact me and I can refer you to Professor Burgoon!

AgriGold Internship: All other duties as assigned

This summer I had the opportunity to work with the Marketing Team at AgriGold.  AgriGold is a seed corn company based in Saint Francisville, Illinois.  Throughout the summer, my position was meant to assist the internship coordinator by processing the daily activities, expense reports, and coordinating contests for the field interns across the Corn Belt.  

As the summer progressed, my day-to-day activities became less structured.  The marketing team spent many hot days in the warehouse packing boxes, sorting promotional items, or assembling new items.  Before this summer, I had never put much thought into who did all of those tasks; they just seemed to be done.  

I was able to attend AgriGold's National Sales Kickoff in Sandusky, Ohio.  I only got to see a short window of the planning and preparation that went into the event, however I was most amazed by the willingness of the entire team to offer help in order to finish quickly.  No matter his or her title, everyone had the common goal of making the event run smoothly.  

From this experience, I learned the most by the example shown.  Problems are likely to arise in all workplaces, its how you take those in stride and problem solve yourself that proves your ability to others.  

Summer has Finally Come to a Close

It's finally that time. Summer has ended and school has begun, but we won't forget all of the fun and learning we had this summer!

The children learning about Pigs & Soybeans

We finished out our summer learning about Pigs, Soybeans, Sustainable Gardening, and Space (how gravity effects plants). The kids got to make pig puppets, soybean shakers, and they got to grow their own radishes! They also had a chance to try some tasty fruits and veggies while learning about sustainable gardening. Yum!

Check out the fun we had making our pig puppets!

Youth Cooking School

Hello! My name is Samantha McCann and I am a junior majoring in Agricultural Leadership Education.  This past summer I was an intern at the Unit 22 branch of Illinois Extension, which consists of Monroe, Madison, & St. Clair counties.  

While located in Monroe County for majority of my internship, my main project was to be in charge, with my co-
intern, of Youth Cooking School held in Monroe County.  Youth Cooking School is an educational program aimed toward teaching ages 9-13 about nutrition & meal planning, food preparation skills, the importance of physical activity, and healthy food choices.  By teaching youth about this, they can in turn help their families to make overall better health choices.

 The sessions were three hours long, for one week each (with eight sessions held throughout the summer in total). We taught the YCS participants about gluten allergies, raw eggs/raw meat, cooking terms, and the My Plate just to name a few things! As for recipes, we made items such as Spinach Smoothies, Gluten-free White Bean Brownies, Cheddar Biscuits, Ranch Porkchops, cupcake decorating, and many more!  This summer has been a  great experience as being in charge of a program, as my co-intern and I were the ones who oversaw and taught the whole four weeks of Youth Cooking School. I am so grateful for this opportunity, and I haven't learned more about youth and Illinois Extension in general than I ever thought possible! Thank you Unit 22 for making my summer a great one!

University of Illinois Extension Internship

Throughout my summer internship, I got a chance to contribute to various different agricultural endeavors. The first component involved driving around to different CPS schools conducting garden evaluations. I filled out a three page survey for each school created by Drew Thomas, the school garden coordinator. I was asked to answer questions ranging from the number of total garden beds to the overall condition of the garden. The most effective way to fill out this survey was through my iPhone 6, where I could give feedback to the garden coordinators in real time. I took multiple pictures of each garden and dragged them into a google drive folder for all other contributors of the survey to see. In total, I visited 35 different CPS schools and completed surveys for each.

Memorial for student that passed away at
Mt. Greenwood Elementary School

For my Professional Development Experience, I worked hands on with my supervisor Zach Grant to build a high tunnel. Located at 50 W Madison in Maywood Illinois, the ReUseDepot provided us with a piece of land adjacent to the property for us to build. Extension agreed that by building on their property, both the ReUseDepot and Extension have co-ownerhsip of the high tunnel. This high tunnel structure uses solar heat to create a microclimate. Together, Zach and I assembled steel hoops, support boards, and garden beds day in and day out. I learned how to use power tools and how to create a high tunnel that is structurally sound. I learned the meticulous detail that goes into creating a large structure that is sustainable year round. Although completing the structure was cut off early due to my departure for school, I can safely say that I contributed to building a high tunnel that traps heat, allowing for year round growth. 

Zachary Grant using clamps, level bubble, and power tools to make sure steel hoops are level and equidistant

Myself, Jordan Horwich, using power drill to lock in support for steel hoops 

Interning in Indianapolis

School is officially in full swing. I am always excited to get back to school, but this year I have come back to campus with a renewed excitement.

This past summer, I had the opportunity to intern with FLM+ in Indianapolis, Indiana. FLM+ is a strategic consulting, marketing and communications company serving clients who specialize in the business of agriculture and the life of rural communities. In the Indianapolis office, I had the unique opportunity to work with Asurgo functions. Asurgo, an FLM+ company, is a strategic organizational development, learning services, and consulting group. Throughout the summer I was exposed to many different aspects of their business. I was able to gain experience doing market research, developing training and curriculum, attending client meetings, and observing the strategic planning process, among other things. I was able to observe how our functions in the Indianapolis office interacted with and even depended upon those functions of the company that are primarily housed in the Minneapolis, Columbus and Washington D.C. offices.

As a part of my internship, I completed a Capstone Project which was an assigned project that aligned to my interests while also adding value to the company. My Capstone Project consisted of three main components: 1) an assessment of an existing training program, 2) conducting research on digitally delivered training, and 3) designing, implementing and analyzing data from a survey of inexperienced agricultural retail sales professionals about their training experiences.

Throughout this experience, I learned a lot about myself – including my strengths as well as areas in need of improvement.  Before this internship, I had never experienced – and in some cases never even heard of – the type of work I was doing. It stretched me far outside of my comfort zone and challenged me in ways I had never been challenged before. All of my experiences during this internship combined with a great deal of reflection have led me to determine a more specific career path which is the source of this renewed excitement for the future.  

Diversity of a Company

My name is Andrew Nagy and I am a senior in the ALE program here at the university. This summer I returned to Bayer Crop Sciences for a second internship at the Midwest Field Research Center located in White Heath, IL. The previous year I worked as a research assistant under the Trait Development focus, absorbing as much "regulated" experience as I could. This summer I transitioned to an internship under the Crop Protection focus to experience more mainstream agriculture research practices.

At the beginning of this summer, I assumed that I would be learning some new practices and procedures for this different style of research; but I was not prepared for how vastly different the two areas are form each other while still feeding into the Bayer Crop science branch. The Crop Sciences research branch of the Bayer corporation compasses; early development, breeding, trait development, crop protection, turf and ornamental, as well as small fruits and vegetables. After finishing this summer under Crop Protection, my eyes were truly opened to how many different and unique areas there are under this single branch of the company.

A lesson that I was very happy to have learned this summer was to experience ALL a company has to offer. You may have not been fond of your internship or think a different area would be better for you, but that is no reason to dismiss a company all together. It is crucial to truly experience different/all areas a company has to offer in order to make sure you're not missing out on something you might truly thrive in or enjoy doing. Last year I barely scratched the surface of the Crop Sciences branch, let alone the entire corporation of Bayer. This year and in the future, I plan to truly embrace the company as a whole to fully experience not only my specific area, but also what the company I work for is doing for the community, industry, and truly the entire world.

Hello, my name is Chris O'Connor and I am a senior in Agricultural Leadership. I graduated last May with a bachelor's degree in Technical Systems Management. My internship for the summer was working with the Illinois football program director of football operations. I worked with the director of football operations, Tim Knox and helped reintegrate the team with the app TeamWorks. TeamWorks is a app that allows for fast and easy communication among teammates and staff. This app will help the program continue to develop and allow for easy access to important information.

Another aspect of my internship and a part that I really enjoyed was planning and going out on a community service opportunity in Monticello at the Piatt County Nursing Home. It was such an amazing time to go and put a smile on residents faces that are not always able to go to games. We played bingo and signed autographs. There is not a better feeling than making someone's day by just showing up and talking to them and showing that football players are regular people.

Above is the picture of some of the players and the residents.