Interning at COUNTRY Financial

I've always been told, "It's alright to step into a company this isn't directly related to agriculture." I always thought that I couldn't do that, I wouldn't enjoy it. Little did I know that when I started interning for COUNTRY Financial, they weren't directly related to agriculture. Sure they were started by a group of farmers and are a member of the Illinois Agriculture Association, but they are more. I have learned to work with many people from many different backgrounds. In fact, there are roughly two or three of us interns out of 60 that are majoring in agriculture.

During my internship, my colleagues, mentor, and supervisor have looked to me for help with agriculture related topics. I have promoted our crop specialists with releases published to county farm bureau publications, I have arranged interviews for our senior loss control representative on farm safety, I tagged along to the state FFA convention to help with interviews, I have created talking points for people interviewing about how COUNTRY Financial supports youth in agriculture, and I even have the opportunity to go to the state fair. Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend.


While I have utilized my agriculture knowledge in an environment that isn't as familiar with it as I am, I have learned so much about a company that deals with issues and other events outside of agriculture. I have learned about heat safety, how to protect your home while you are vacation, and many other financial topics. I have developed content for children safety activity books that relates to fire and bike safety.


While at COUNTRY Financial, I have been able to volunteer. The first time I volunteered, we bought ingredients, made dinner, and served a meal at Safe Harbor. Safe Harbor is similar to a homeless shelter. It definitely made me feel good that day to be a part of a company like COUNTRY Financial. I was also able to volunteer with other interns at the Midwest Food Bank. We stacked pallets full of food items and I learned that I am not great at saran wrapping items.

Through my internship (so far), I have learned that you can manage to do anything you love with almost any job. There is always an opportunity.

GROWMARK: Learning and Leading

 GROWMARK: Learning and Leading

Tim Callahan



Learning and Leading High School Interns (1)

Sky tries his hand at flying a drone (2)

Hello, and thanks for reading! As the GROWMARK Training and Development intern, about 1/4 of my time is spent working with the Learning and Leading High School Interns (1). Learning and Leading is a program started by the family of companies (GROWMARK, Country Financial, Illinois Farm Bureau) over 10 years ago that gives students in the Bloomington-Normal community a glimpse of corporate life. It also exposes many of them to the agricultural industry, and shows them career fields that they never knew existed.



Interns pose with Jason Lay and his tractor (3)

Every Wednesday was focused on a different topic. One of the students favorite days was Ag-Day, where we took them out to visit a farm and elevator. They learned about the day to day operations of a modern farmer, and got to explore some of the tractors and equipment that the farmers used (3).  Later that day, we had guest speakers come in to talk about energy and agronomy. The students even gor the chance to fly a drone (2)!



Interns and their mentors next to the newly laid rock-bed (4)

Another day that the students really enjoyed was volunteer day. We spent the first half of the day emphasizing the importance of giving back to the community, and the second half of the days volunteering at the YWCA. The interns painted 100 yards of chain link fence, and re-constructed a rock-bed around the parking lot (4).

 

In terms of my own growth, being in charge of the Learning and Leading program helped develop my workshop creation skills, as well as my facilitation skills. We try to bring in as many guest speakers as possible, but occasionally I would need to step in and facilitate certain topics like career aspirations or leadership skills. Sometimes, I would be working off of a previous template, where as other times, I would be responsible for creating the entire workshop.

 

However, as valuable as the facilitation experience is, the bigest benefit of working with these students is what I am learning from them. They come from much different backgrounds than I do, and their eye-opening perspectives are showing me the true meaning of perseverence and will power. If these interns can go against great odds to be corporate employees as only high school students, then what is my excuse?