Welcome to the Purdue Agronomy/NRES Ambassador Blog. We are current students sharing the day in a life of a Purdue Agronomy or Natural Resources and Environmental Science student.
Another great example of the opportunities here in the Purdue Agronomy Department is the ability to join the Student Chapter of the Soil & Water Conservation Society. As a member of the chapter you are given the opportunity to meet people in the industry from NRCS and other organizations during the monthly meetings. Likewise each fall semester you are able to attend the annual Hoosier meeting. This year the meeting took place at Ball State University and focused on Soil Health Above and Below the Surface. We had different speakers from all over the state that present different topics for the members. We even had one of our very own professors, Dr. Graveel, from the department of Agronomy to talk about Aggregate Stability and soil microbes.
Another part of the meeting is the announcement of the annual Hoosier Chapter Scholarship Recipient. Each year the Hoosier Soil & Water Conservation Society will award a $1,000 scholarship to a student in the chapter. The Purdue Agronomy Students have long term been recipients of this award. Last year I was blessed with the opportunity to receive this award and now this year another student from Purdue was given this award, Ariel Kucera. Congratulations on receiving this scholarship!
The Soil & Water Conservation is a great organization to get involved in while at Purdue. It allows great opportunities to network with people in the industry, stay up to date with current issues in the industry, and also stay connected with some of the previous professors and students from the Purdue Department of Agronomy and Natural Resources. I strongly encourage everyone to get involved. If this is something that interests you please join our next meeting at Purdue on November 18th at 5:45 in Lily 3-409. Everyone is welcome and feel free to bring your friends!
-Maggie Shoue, President of Purdue Soil & Water Conservation Society
As a senior this Fall at Purdue I've had a lot of time to think about what I wish I would've know about college before I actually started. By my junior year I feel like I had a pretty good system going on how to manage my time and get the most out of my college career but I can only sit and think what it would have been like if I had known these things before my freshmen year. I'll list off what a few of these things are. 1) Use a Planner of Some Kind
I never used a planner in high school, not once, I never really needed it. I thought that this strategy would be just fine when I came to college; it wasn't. It was fine for about three weeks when there wasn't much going on besides a reading here and there and weekly assignments but once exams rolled around I was forgetting about things left and right unless I had them written down or by some miracle just remembered. Starting first semester of my junior year, at the beginning of every semester I write down my entire schedule that I know including exam dates, when weekly assignments are due, and meeting times so that I know I won't forget to do things and can stay on top of my work and possibly be able to work ahead as well.
2) Hold Leadership Positions
Obviously the first reason I came to Purdue was to get an education but I also wanted to as well rounded of an individual and have gotten as many new experiences as possible while I was here. Most people, regardless of you schooling level, tell you to get involved in clubs and organizations so that you can get to know people and have fun and I completely agree, but what most people don't tell you to do is to actually be involved with those clubs. When you join an organization or club don't just go to the meetings to go, run for an office and hold a leadership position. Leadership positions within various clubs and organizations can get you valuable experience that you can use later in life as well as help you earn connections within the university and industry.
3) Get to Know Your Professors
This to me might be the most important thing you can do of the three tips I've given you in this blog. When I got to Purdue I didn't think this was important at all, I was extremely wrong. You're classes in the agronomy department may not be massive and everybody may pretty much know everybody but having a good relationship with your professor is crucial. Every professor is willing and able to help any student in any way they can you as a student just need to ask for it. Going to small review sessions, office hours, or emailing your professor and asking for a private meeting are all good ways to do this. Make sure your professor knows you're trying and that you want to learn about what they are teaching you. Being in good graces with your professors can benefit you in more ways than one and I highly advise that you strive to make it happen as best you can.
I know these three things sound pretty basic and I agree with you, they absolutely are, but if I would have listened when people told me these things before I came to school instead of learning the hard way halfway through my career.
It is hard to believe this semester is
already well into the fall season and the brilliant warmth of summer will soon
be difficult to remember. This summer, I interned for the Trinity River Audubon
Center, the Dallas branch of the National Audubon Society with headquarters in
New York. The mission of National Audubon Society is to conserve and restore
natural ecosystems and wildlife habitats with a focus on birds. As an intern, I
had the opportunity to contribute to this mission in a variety of ways. My main
focus consisted of guiding students through a hands-on nature and environmental
learning experience as an “eco”-camp counselor. It was incredibly rewarding to
help instill in my campers a passion for the environment and to watch this
passion grow throughout the summer of canoeing, hiking, and bird watching.
I
also took part in conservation efforts and tasks throughout the site such as
documenting bird species daily, animal handling and maintenance of our wildlife
on site, and maintenance of invasive species such as the dreaded and pesky
Johnson grass. Overall, my summer was wonderfully spent at this Gold LEED
certified oasis.
More recently, since the start of the semester, I became
busy in the preparation of an initiation ceremony for another organization that
I serve for – The National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Students in the top
20% of their class are invited to join the society and participate in the many
opportunities offered such as volunteering events, serving as weekly tutors at
a local middle school, scholarship opportunities and free speaker events. As
officers, we were very excited to initiate 50 new members into the society this
semester and host their families at Purdue for the event.
Additionally, current exciting events on campus include
Purdue’s very own Green Week 2014 taking place this week. Green Week consists
of an entire week of events aimed at promoting and inspiring sustainable
behavior through discussion, screenings, presentations, and activities. The following link contains this week’s
schedule of events http://www.purdue.edu/sustainability/news/getinvolved/greenweek14/index.html.
Hello, I'd like to start out with a quick recap about myself. My name is Isaac Greeson, I am from an Indiana family farm, and this is my first semester as an agronomy ambassador. This past summer instead of returning to do another internship with the company I interned with last summer, I decided to return home to help my dad on our family farm. I mostly worked on machinery and did landscaping around our house. Not quite as glamorous as my summer internship but it was good to be home.
Being at home for the summer was great, but for all of us that didn't graduate, we must go back to school. Like the transition from summer to fall we to have to make a transition from no school to school. For some this transition seems very easy, for others it can be very hard and takes some time to get back in the swing of things. For me it is the latter. No matter how much I tell myself that I need to be in school mode, I always seem to have a difficult time starting the semester.
I think this is a problem all of us have to some extent, some worse than others. This semester being one of my hardest yet my inability to transition into the semester has hit pretty hard. One of the best thing you can do to combat this tendency is to place yourself into a group of motivated people that create a good atmosphere for you to learn and grow in. If all of your friends just sit around and watch tv on the internet all day, causing you to do the same, then try and find another group of friends that will help you succeed scholastically.
The biggest thing to take away from this post is that distraction is the enemy, keep busy.
This summer I worked for the Indiana DNR, Division of Communications as the video intern.The Division of Communications works with the other divisions to promote
and educate the public about Indiana’s state parks, natural resources, and DNR
projects and events.
I worked with
Michael Carney, who is the videographer, editor, and project coordinator for
the IDNR videos. We were in the
office two to three days of the week planning projects and editing
footage.Then we were out of
office the rest of the week and some weekends, “out of office” meaning
capturing video out in nature.
It
was a great experience working for the IDNR and the position really allowed me
to see what all the divisions do and how they are interconnected.Some of my favorite projects that we
did were the #GetINoutdoors campaign (which made it on local news stations for
a couple weeks), Backyard Birding, The Summer Solstice Festival, and A History
Tour of the Wabash River.
VIDEO: A History Tour of the Wabash River
The last video, “A History Tour of the
Wabash River,” was my personal video project.I learned a lot from being able to plan, research, film, and
edit my own project under the supervision of Michael. The Indiana DNR is filled with great people and I had a very
positive work experience. It was tough to leave, but it’s always nice to be back
in Boilermaker territory, applying what I learned this summer to my other
campus video works.
VIDEO: #GetINoutdoors
I “acted” very briefly in one of the campaign videos. We really went in depth with the planning of this campaign and worked hard to coordinate actors, locations, props, as well as the overall concept of the campaign. I was pleased to see it get the attention of the media, and hopefully the attention of some Hoosiers as well.
Hello all,
Today I had an exam in AGRY 385, Environmental Soil Chemistry. While it was a lot of information for one exam, earlier this week my professor, Dr. Lee, did an in class activity that helped a lot in learning the information.
Soil Chemistry Cranium!
Dr. Lee put a lot of effort into making several questions about subjects that would be on our exam that fit into the themed question categories of the game Cranium. She also made us breakfast casserole and brownies and brought us drinks! This shows how great the professors are in the agronomy department, and how they truly want you to succeed.
