[box]The College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences produces some of the top agriculture graduates throughout the country, but what are some of the interesting careers available to them?[/box]
Breanne Harlan
Dairy science junior
Harlan went to the Fall career fair, and a week later received a job offer.
“This summer I have an internship with Kraft Foods, and I’ll be doing quality assurance,” she said. “I really want to do an internship out of state — I really wanted to go. I liked that it was a huge company, and the lady said they have a family environment, so that was really cool.”
Harlan is excited that she will be working at a place with an underground cheese cave that is energy efficient, she said. Harlan thinks she will be taking samples of cheese for her internship, but Kraft hasn’t officially told her what she will be expected to do yet.
Cara Crye
2001 agricultural science graduate
Cara Crye is the marketing coordinator for Farm Supply, a 2,400 member supply cooperative with five locations in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.
“My job is working on internal and external marketing of Farm Supply,” Crye said. “Not only do we serve the agricultural community but we also serve homeowners.”
Crye works with 4H and FFA programs, as well as Cal Poly.
“My favorite part about my job would be the people, and that we’re here to sustain the agriculture industry,” she said.
Crye worked for Farm Supply as a student at Cal Poly, but said she didn’t think she would continue on a career path with them. She planned on pursuing a career in agricultural communications, but when her boss offered her the marketing coordinator position, she was happy to take it.
“I’m grateful for my education at Cal Poly, and I think it’s a great institution for learning, and I’m proud to be a graduate of the university,” she said.
Cara Peck
2004 animal science graduate
After graduating from Cal Poly with a degree in animal science, Cara Peck went to graduate school at UC Davis and earned her masters degree in horticulture agronomy. She now works as an environmental scientist for the United States Environmental Protection Agency and has for the past six years.
“I work on clean energy and climate change issues,” Peck said. “I support renewable energy. One of my biggest projects is creating energy from cow manure.”
The energy produced from cow manure can be turned into electricity and used on-sight at dairies or put back into the grid, she said. This is her favorite part — creating “on-the-ground change to support the environment,” she said.
Although Peck didn’t expect to get the job she has now while she was at Cal Poly, she said she loves it. She said students should have an open mind to career paths because they might end up with a job they didn’t think of before.
Malorie Bankhead
agricultural communications junior
In 2010, Bankhead did an eight-week internship in Washington, D.C., as a national beef ambassador for the United States Department of Agriculture.
“I got to work with five check-off programs,” she said. “Check-off programs are producer-driven programs, like producer communications, consumer education and research.”
One of the projects she worked on was the Feds Feeds Families food drive.
“I planned an event that collected 60 pounds of non-perishable foods to donate to capital area food shelters,” she said. “It was an eye opening experience for me, as well as an educational experience.”
Bankhead said her internship with the USDA helped her gain skills in business and knowledge of the relationship between government and certain organizations in agriculture.
“Cal Poly prepared me for this internship because of the ‘Learn By Doing’ philosophy,” she said. “Being able to practice what we’re doing helped a lot and prepared me for the experience.”
Peter Neuhs
2002 agricultural education graduate
Neuhs currently works four jobs, goes to school for agricultural law and business and has a wife and kids.
He works on a 180-acre citrus ranch in Cayucos, does criminal defense work for Ilan Funke-Bilu, is a member of a reggae band called BoomBala and is starting his own organic crop inspecting business.
After injuring his back a year-and-a-half ago while doing farm work, he decided he needed to expand his education and do something more as a farmer.
“I got certified as an organic crop inspector, and I started going to law school at the same time,” he said.
During his time at Cal Poly, he did an internship at Earth College in Costa Rica, and ran his own farm in Cayucos specializing in dry-farmed tomatoes. He also started a community-supported agriculture program which brought boxes of produce to people’s doors. His farm is now in Morro Bay.
Neuhs also did his senior project at Cal Poly on bio fuel feed-stocks with an emphasis in biodiesel, but started his master’s at Cal Poly in crops science.
“I went to Cal Poly for a long time,” he said. “I basically took every agriculture class they had.”
Michael Lyon
2003 animal science graduate
After graduating from Cal Poly with a degree in animal science, Lyon took a year off from school to gain outside experience. He joined Large Animal Practice in Los Osos, Calif. in 2008 after graduating from UC Davis’s veterinarian school and has been working there ever since.
His job has given him opportunities to work on anything from a yak to a kangaroo.
“It’s fun visiting new places and seeing new faces and I don’t ever have one day that’s the same as the next,” he said. “You never know what you’re going to work on.”
Lyon’s schedule is irregular and sometimes he even gets midnight calls he has to go to, he said.
Large Animal Practice covers all of San Luis Obispo and parts of Santa Barbara, Monterey and Marin counties.
“I have a truck with a vet box with all sorts of equipment,” he said. “It’s pretty much a mobile hospital of sorts. I do anything from C-sections to pregnancy diagnosis in cattle, general medicine, dentistry, a lot of things.”