We’re thrilled to announce the addition of two new student workers to the Cornell Ag Workforce Development team for the academic year! Their diverse perspectives and fresh insights are already enriching our efforts to enhance our work in agricultural workforce development. As they engage directly with our projects, we’re excited to see how their contributions will help shape the future of our work. Stay tuned for updates on their impactful journey with us!
Welcome to the team, Grace Dunham and Molly Rejman! This week we will highlight both students with their introductory blog posts. Today, we will begin with Grace:
My name is Grace Dunham and I’m a senior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, studying Global and Public Health Sciences with a minor in Agricultural Business. I’ve been passionate about the agriculture industry my entire life, growing up on a small farm in Cobleskill, New York and involved in organizations like 4-H and Future Farmers of America.
Some of my earliest memories include showing calves at the Walton State Fair, riding around with my grandpa during harvest season and digging in the garden with my mom in the springtime. For me, the agriculture industry represents the values of community, hard work and dedication.
When I enrolled at Cornell, I originally thought I wanted to become a doctor, and be on the pre-medicine track. Then, one day junior year (yes, after those brutal, pre-med chemistry classes), I glanced at my resume and realized that all of my experiences at college had revolved around agriculture since walking into my freshman dorm. This included clubs like Farm Bureau, the Dairy Science Club and Sigma Alpha, an agricultural sorority. It even included the ways I had spent summers! I had been lucky enough to experience the industry from many different angles, from coordinating a “Life on the Farm” camp in Vermont, to learning about the federal policy process at the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, and finally this past summer, traveling around northern India to interview women farmers about their agricultural businesses. This “ag-centric” trend on my resume made me seriously rethink the way I thought about my future. I came to realize that I was happiest when working in agriculture. I honestly couldn’t think of a more important cause than supporting the essential processes of growing food, distributing food, affecting food policies and educating consumers on food. Not to mention, supporting the people growing our food each and every day.
Both my experiences of growing up in a family of dairy farmers and working on commercial operations have shaped my understanding of the workforce in agriculture and how related it can be to a successful business. Sorting through safety training paperwork and watching a bilingual veterinarian give a talk about using the sort gate at a dairy farm I worked for are just a few experiences that helped me realize how much investing into your labor force matters. It’s clear that an effective, sustainable approach to developing the labor on a farm can truly make or break your operations, as well as profit margins and product quality. A Cornell class, Dairy Fellows, allowed me to explore this concept further, as we presented to dairy farmers about human resources recommendations and business management techniques that could help with challenges. It was then that I knew improving workplace practices and systems as a way to support farmers and their employees was a huge area of opportunity. I’m grateful that the Cornell Agriculture Workforce Development Team is doing such important work on this, and it’s exciting to be a part of it.
In terms of my post-graduation plans, I hope to work in agriculture business and policy. I really enjoy collaborating with producers on strategic business plans, as well as working in public relations and events planning to increase consumer awareness around the agriculture industry. I plan to work in the industry, whether the public or private sector for a year or two.
After that, I hope to apply to law school or a Master’s program with a focus in food and agriculture business.
Thank you, Grace! Stay tuned for Molly Rejman’s post later this week.
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Andrea Durmiaki, Cornell University Agricultural Workforce Development. Permission granted to repost, quote, and reprint with author attribution.
The post Cornell Ag Workforce Development Welcomes Student Hires appeared in The Ag Workforce Journal.
