New Ambassador Introduction

Hello everybody!

My name is Kathryn Graf and I have been recently selected as an Agronomy Ambassador.  Currently, I am a sophomore majoring in Sustainable Agronomic Systems Business and Marketing. Growing up on a family grain farm in Momence, Illinois led me to major in agriculture and further develop my interest and passion for it. Once my four years are up, I plan to attend graduate school and earn my Masters degree within the agronomy field as well. When finished with school, my goal is to work for an agronomic company as a field agronomist in hopes of improving crop quality and raising yields to help feed the ever growing world population.

Along with being an Agronomy Ambassador, I am also a member of the Purdue Women's Track and Field Team and the Soil and Water Conservation Society. I also am in the Leadership Development Certificate Program.  Through these extracurricular activities and the classes I have taken, I have learned and grown as a person so much over the past two years and am excited to see where the next two take me.

The past summer I was blessed to live at home and work for AgReliant as a Seed Corn Production intern. With this position, my main duties were scouting fields and inspect the fields to ensure quality pollination between male and female corn. This internship allowed me to see a side of agriculture that growing up on a typical grain farm never allowed me to experience. This coming up summer will be a huge learning experience for me as well. I will be interning with Helena working on the sales side of the agriculture field down in central Illinois.

I will keep you posted on how this summer’s internship goes and am super excited to take on my duties as an Agronomy Ambassador!  

Dead Week in the SRC

Spending the afternoon in the SRC with Sherry. Got to love the the memory's the soil monoliths bring back!

Learning Experience

If you enjoy conservation and want to learn more about the new and upcoming things in Soil and Water Conservation Society come attend the annual conference. Follow the link to find out more about the conference! 

http://www.swcs.org/index.cfm?nodeID=70589&audienceID=1

Michaela Turner- Agronomy Ambassador

Hi, my name is Michaela Turner and I am one of the newest agronomy ambassadors. I am a soon to be junior studying Sustainable Agronomic Systems- Management. I come from a family owned and operated grain and livestock farm in Grant County, Indiana. It was on our farm where I developed a love and passion for agriculture, but it took me awhile to figure out that it was my life calling. I knew I wanted to do something to help people. For the longest time, I was going to be a social worker, and then I switched to a special education teacher. Finally, I realized that being part of the agriculture industry is one of the biggest differences that I can make.

Honestly, I was scared to death to come to Purdue, but I quickly realized that it was one of the best decisions that I could have made. The agronomy department is a close nit community, and my home away from home. Purdue has opened so many doors to great opportunities for me in the two years that I have been here. I am so proud to say that I am a Purdue Boilermaker!

One great opportunity that Purdue has given me is two internships. Last summer, I was a Maize Product Development Intern, for DuPont Pioneer. At this internship I was able to conduct my own research project and present it at their headquarters in Johnston, Iowa. This summer I am looking forward to being a production intern for Beck's Hybrids in Atlanta, Indiana.

Long term, it is my life long dream to be able to return to my home farm. I know that dream is something I will have to work towards. After college I see myself being a sales agronomist for a major seed company. I want to work alongside farmers helping them meet their full potential.

Graduating Senior- Kelsey Tuholski

It's hard to believe that in a few short weeks my time at Purdue University will be coming to a close. I will be graduating after just 3 short years with my B.S. in Crop Science. Following graduation, I will be entering the workforce as a Business Development Manager for a local company called Horizon Ag Consulting. Horizon provides agronomic and business consulting services to optimize productivity. My responsibilities will allow me to take part in the development process of a new soil valuation company, where I will eventually take on the role of General Manager. Although the company is based in Lafayette, I will be working from my hometown of La Porte, IN. In addition to my work with Horizon, I will be working alongside my father on the family grain farm.

I'll never forget my time at Purdue and how it has contributed to the person that I am today. Now and forever, boiler up!

Kelsey Tuholski

Purdue Agronomy/NRES Video

Hello Everyone,

Agronomy Communications has produced a video about the Purdue Agronomy/NRES Ambassadors. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Earth Day is Tuesday April 22nd

Tomorrow is earth day and what better way to celebrate than planting some trees in your back yard or participating in the celebration with other boilermakers! There are many nurseries here in the greater Lafayette area that sell tree seedlings. What a great way to celebrate all the beauty of the earth!  You can also partake in some of the great activities that Purdue has planned in celebration of Earth Day just follow the link below. And you can follow the second link to a nursery located Lafayette that you can purchase your own tree and plant it with family and friends to enjoy for years to come! Now let's celebrate the beauty of the Earth!

Purdue Earth Day Schedule of Activities:

http://www.purdue.edu/sustainability/news/getinvolved/earth_day/index.html

Nursery located in Lafayette IN:

http://www.bellingersonline.com/index.php?option=bservices&id=13 

Sampling The Wabash | Claudia Benitez

Last Friday, I participated in the Wabash River Sampling Blitz alongside one of our newest ambassadors, Brittany McAdams. The sampling blitz is a volunteer event that has been put on by the Wabash River Enhancement Corporation since 2009 in order to assess water quality in the Wabash River watershed. We were assigned a location, which involved driving to three different sites in order to find and sample three different access points for this location. Fortunately, we were graced with fabulous weather and were able to enjoy venturing the back roads of West Lafayette with the windows down and warm breeze caressing our faces. When arriving at each location, finding access points to the streams involved miniature hikes through bushes, shrubs, and hill slopes. We measured water temperature and turbidity and collected water samples from each stream. When we returned to Celery Bog, we tested the nitrate, nitrite, pH and phosphate levels of our samples and then recorded them on a large color-coded map where all the other samplers would also document their findings. Needless to say, we had a blast and were sad when our time pretending to be professional water quality testers came to an end. Through the College of Ag, we are kept up to date on neat upcoming events and opportunities like this. The Wabash River Sampling Blitz is an activity I definitely recommend participating in; not only was it loads of fun, but it also helps maintain important and current water quality data for the Wabash. 

Turf Club

Hello Everyone,

If you’re anything like me I’m sure you’re wondering where the spring weather is hiding! I wanted to take this post to give a deeper outlook on a club in the agronomy department, Turf Club, and the importance of becoming involved on campus.  Joining clubs and becoming a leader within is something I remember hearing on almost every campus visit I made and it has been an extremely rewarding process taking that advice.  It seems like in all the job interviews I’ve had, the majority of the questions asked I have been able to answer from an experience I’ve had as the leader of a club.  The turf club is a group of students whose main goal is to compete at collegiate quiz bowl tournaments.  The first tournament we attend is hosted by the Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA), which is a comprehensive exam over the management of baseball and football stadiums.  The second is hosted by the Golf Course Superintends Association of America (GCSAA), which as the name implies is an exam over turfgrass management on golf courses.  These exams are taken in teams of four and include anything from soil management and aerification practices to everyday turf health concerns.  Each event surrounds a conference, which provides great networking opportunities in which many students have came out with internships.  When not in competition mode the group has cookouts and golf scrambles making this a very tight knit community.  Clubs are a great way to meet new friends and become leaders in your industry setting you apart from the rest and something you should definitely consider making time for while at Purdue.  As mentioned in a previous post I have been president for the last three years and just recently stepped down with graduation upcoming.  It has been an extremely rewarding experience and I want to thank all the members who made it possible and I would like to wish future success to upcoming teams.  If anyone has any questions or would like information on joining please don’t hesitate to email me (mille926@purdue.edu). Until then look for our putt putt fundraiser outside Lilly Hall at Spring Fest!