Apr 7, 2007

Summer Intern Looks Forward to Learning About Agriculture

I’ve found that most college students studying agriculture were raised on farms or by Extension agents. Agriculture tends to have deep roots in most individuals, roots for which such students are thankful and from which they intend to grow, blossoming into professional agriculturalists in some capacity.

Of them, I am irreconcilably jealous.

My parents and grandparents do not grow, raise or produce anything stored in greenhouses, silos or barns. In spite of that, I have always had an interest in agriculture.

Since there is no familial prerequisite for becoming involved in agriculture, I took a job on a dairy farm when I was 15 years old. I thought the early mornings and late nights that are farmers’ hours, bailing hay in the blazing summer sun and milking cows in the freezing cold of winter sounded like fun. And it was. I liked the job enough to stay for three years and then went on to attend Michigan State University, where I will be a senior in the fall.

It was at MSU I decided I needed a double major. There was just no avoiding the fact I loved to write. I was introduced to agriculture and natural resources communications and decided to couple that coursework with a journalism degree. This combination has let me enhance my writing ability while allowing me to become an advocate for the importance and future of agriculture.

That’s how I arrived here, at Great American Publishing, with the opportunity to spend the summer as a staff writer for The Fruit Growers News and The Vegetable Growers News.

Over the course of the summer, I hope to have the opportunity to get to know as much about the industries and people I will be writing about as possible. Feel free to call me at (616) 887-9008, ext. 121. I look forward to hearing from and working with all of you.

E-mail Jenna Heitchue at [email protected].