Minors

Hey there everyone!!

I hope the semester is wrapping up, and everyone is getting ready for finals. Hopefully nobody is as unfortunate as me and is taking one Saturday at 3:30. If you are though good luck and I hope you eventually get home to a good 3 week Christmas break! I wanted to use my last blog of the semester to discuss picking up minors in college.

As a freshman, I didn't expect to pick up a minor, but here I am as a junior and I just recently picked up a double minor. One in Farm Management and the other in Food and Agribusiness Management. For most kids these days, there is a lot of college credits offered in high school, and as I do with my little brother I emphasize how important they can be. Coming in with more than a semester worth of credit, I didn't look at it as a chance to graduate early, but an opportunity to further my knowledge. A minor allows you to dive into and practice classes and areas of focus you do not specialize in and already taking a couple of my minor classes, I can truthfully say that it is satisfying to improve in other fields. It also is a great way to be more appealing to future employers. So please, if you have the opportunity to minor in something, do it and you wont regret it! I know most of scheduling is complete for next semester, but keep this in mind come next spring when we all are scheduling again.

Happy Holidays to all!

Karson Kamman 

Another semester almost over!

Hey Folks!

My name is Nick and I am a junior studying Crop and Soil Management in the Agronomy Department.

Its been an exciting semester! I've traveled to Tampa, FL for the Students of Agronomy, Soils, and Environmental Sciences (SASES) meeting in October. I also am drawing close to my last days as the Purdue Agronomy Club President and an exciting semester with that. I found an internship for this summer; I will be an Ag Tech Intern for Co-Alliance. Lastly, I got engaged just before Thanksgiving Break. It has been very busy!

With all of this, I want to highlight the awesome opportunities in the college of Ag. We have a great career fair in which students can easily find internships that suit them. We also have great clubs that have trips just like the one I took to Florida earlier this semester.

Purdue has all of these great things open to any students with the passion and drive to go for them. It is a great time to be a boilermaker!!

Thanks all and Boiler up!

Nick Roysdon

Greetings,
This past weekend was another great weekend to be a Purdue Agronomy Club. We went up to Chicago for a collegiate crops contest where ten other big Ag schools, including Purdue participated. The Purdue Crops team is a great way for anyone at Purdue to make good friends and to learn a lot about plant and seed ID, depending on the competition. The fall competition is more focused on seed and plant ID as well as a focus on grain grading. The spring competition consists of an agronomic exam, a math test and ID of crops, seeds, as well as agricultural and lab equipment. You do not even have to be an Agronomy Major to join, just sign up for this one credit hour class and learn skills you will have for a lifetime.

Update

Hey all!

I'm Hannah Padgett. I'm a junior in Agronomy: Crop and Soil Management.

       One thing I would recommend is taking classes outside of your major/comfort zone. Right now, I'm taking SOC 220 which is over social problems. A couple of nights ago I watched a documentary on poverty. I got to see how three young children lived their life’s will living in poverty. It was interesting to see how the young children live their life’s and seeing how the parents are handling these situations. Each of the three stories where unique and it was interesting to see the variation among the families within their geographical area. In this class I have also learned about superstitions, social problems, different sociological perspectives, war, political spectrum, terrorism, and racial disparities. These things are throughout our life, but I never put much thought behind why we do it.

       Also, every Wednesday I go to Agronomy Club meeting. A couple of weeks ago we had the Hog Roast which was a get together for the college of agriculture. Though our typical meetings consist of dinner then a speaker, work session, trips, or other fun activities. Being the recording secretary, I send out weekly emails to remind the members what is going on and what we have planned for the meeting for that week.

Boiler up!

Hannah Padgett
padgeth@purdue.edu

Wait...Thanksgiving is only 2 weeks away?!

Well this semester has flew by! The third round of exams is coming to an end and then it is time to prepare for finals. So much has happened this fall and its sad to see the semester come to an end. But with an end comes a new beginning, Spring!

These past few months have been nothing but positive for myself. At the beginning of the semester I had the privilege to be elected the Secretary of the Purdue Equestrian Team and welcome a new board member to my past position, Alumni Representative. Not only had the team elected new Executive Board members we decided to create a board of Equestrian Team Alumni to help for long term goals for the team, such as building a facility, and reaching the goal of $100,000 in the endowment fund we opened in the Spring of 2016 in the name of our retired coach, The Jerry Steinmetz Legacy Fund. We had also had the first horse show of the year at Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods. Purdue won both Saturday and Sunday and is now leading the region by 28 points!

I hope everyone is having a fantastic semester! Travel safe over Thanksgiving and have fun visiting family and eating turkey and pumpkin pie.

Boiler Up,
Olivia Lake

Leaves are Falling, Autumn is Calling!

I hope everyone has been having a successful harvest (despite the cold, wet conditions)! As this semester is approaching its end, so is my term as being the President of my professional agriculture sorority, Sigma Alpha. Since I am a senior graduating in May of 2018, my officer positions in the clubs that I am involved with will be handed off to the next term of leaders for the 2018 calendar year. I will also be passing off my role as the Agronomy Club Social Media Chair. Both organizations have been an integral part of my college experiences at Purdue University. I will miss all of the faculty and members who have become close acquaintances with me throughout my four years at Purdue; we will definitely stay in touch for the years to come as I start my professional career after graduation!

The past few weeks I have been in the process of interviewing for a job post-graduation. With all of the mergers occurring in the agriculture industry (referring to the corporate seed and chemical mergers), jobs are a bit hard to come by right now. Since agriculture is a commodity market, high and lows will always occur, and to stay afloat in this downturn, those who diversify their farming operations will be the real winners in the industry. If I don't end up in agriculture directly after I graduate, I would like to go into sales and finance. My major is Agronomy, with a concentration in Business and Marketing, and minors in Food & Agribusiness Management and Weed Science. My time at Purdue has exemplified to me that interacting with customer relations and solving problems is my passion, so I would be thankful to end up in either trade (agriculture or finance).

The Agronomy Senior Capstone class, AGRY 598, has been a long (four hours, one day a week) and interesting class this semester! My group is covering the topic of Drainage Management with Usage of Cover Crops. All of the groups will be done with showing our presentations in less than a month. I am eager to see how the other groups present their agronomic subjects as well! We agronomy seniors have become exposed to various technologies in the industry, as well as different cropping system management practices. I have gained a lot of information about how to apply the various farming methods into my future career. I would notably recommend taking AGRY 598 as a senior capstone course!

I recently celebrated my birthday, and my friends and family came down to Purdue for the Nebraska football game!

-Harvest Blessings & Boiler Up!

Deatra Gremaux

Hey there everyone!

Can you believe that we are already in week 12 of the semester? I sure can't! I hope everyone’s semesters are going well! Mine has been going alright, very busy!

Around mid- September one of the main events that happened to me and my family is that my dad got married! My bother Andrew and I gained a step mom, Jill, along with two step siblings, Justin and Alyson. I also gained another dog, named Wren. The wedding was very small, but special. Below is me and the new additions to our family.

October was also a busy month for me. I attended the College of Agriculture Career fair to search for a potential summer internship. I had a phone interview with a company and am still waiting to hear back from them. I am looking forward to finding out what my summer plans will end up being! Also in on October, 8^th I had a birthday, marking my 2 decades in this world! I can’t believe that I am 20! I had a great fall break/birthday weekend spent with family and friends.

As many of you know, I am a member of the Purdue Horticulture Club. This last month we took our fall trip to Chicago. We visited the Chicago Botanic Garden and Garfield Park Conservatory. We had a great trip and got to see some neat plants that you defiantly don’t see on a daily basis.  On our way home we also stopped at Fair Oaks Farm at their new restaurant, Farmhouse. I recommend visiting all of these neat places if you get the chance! Pictured below is a neat bridge at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

I just recently I signed my first apartment lease! I am excited to live with and build my friendship with the wonderful friends I have meet here at Purdue. We will be living in the apartments right across from the horticulture building. I like the dorm life, but couldn’t be more excited to live in an apartment starting my junior year!

As we all look forward to Thanksgiving break, I hope everyone enjoys the last weeks of the semester! I wish you all the best of luck! Keep cheering on the Boilers! Basketball season is up next!!

Go Boilers!

Ashley Thurman

athurma@purdue.edu

Ag Olympics

Hello Everyone!!

I hope that everyone is getting along great this semester, it won’t be long until its Christmas break and the semester is over. I wanted to blog this time about an opportunity that I have had each fall here at Purdue. Ag Olympics is a great opportunity to meet up with a wide range of Ag students, enjoy a delicious hog roast, and participate in some friendly but competitive competitions. There is a wide range of clubs that are involved in the competitions, such as Agronomy Club, Dairy Club, ASM Club and many more. Being involved within a club allows you to compete in these Olympics and possibly take home the golden shovel as a prize and bragging rights. For the Agronomy club through, we could say competition hasn’t been very hard, and for that reason we are 3-peat champions! If you walk on the 2^nd floor of Lilly, you will be able to see the shovel on display and a picture of the Agronomy Club participants that have kept this winning streak going. This is a great way to represent your club as well as a great discussion within interviews, that you will receive when you attend the Ag Career Fair. Ag Olympics is also a great time to social within the departments of Agriculture. It can be an evening full of new and interesting information, possibly about someone else major and how you could also possibly get involved, either by a minor or just a club. I strongly encourage everyone, even if you are not competing, to attend the Ag Olympics and socialize with your peers, friends can last a lifetime!

I do hope everyone has a great second part of the semester and happy holidays to all!

Thanks,

Karson Kamman

Update

Hello Everyone!

Happy Fall To All! I have no idea where the time has gone with another semester almost over! Just a little update on my life …. We FINALLY got all of our crops harvested after a very frustrating harvest season. Considering all the rain we have had and the replant that had to be done, we are thrilled with what our crops have yielded. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for this semester. It’s nearly Thanksgiving and that means it’s almost time for Christmas Break! I am SO looking forward to Christmas Break because that means CALVING SEASON; I just love it! My last big bit of news ……. I’M ENGAGED! God Bless you all and I hope everyone has a Blessed Thanksgiving.