Students in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences built career connections with industry leaders and government agencies at the college’s third annual Ag and Environmental Sciences Awareness Day.
The event, held Nov. 1 at the University Farm Pavilion, served as a career fair and networking opportunity for students in the college to interact with, and provide resumes to, various agriculture-based organizations. Syngenta, PepsiCo Inc., N.C. Farm Credit Council, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Kerry Industries, Farm Bureau and NC Electric Cooperatives all brought representatives to the event.
Lauren Agnew, a senior studying sustainable land and food systems, said she came to the event hoping to get an internship or a job for next spring.
“I've talked to a couple employers, but I'm looking forward to making some more connections,” she said.
Najm Muhammad was interested in seeing more of the farm, as well as meeting with the recruiters.
“One of the main reasons why I came here to A&T is because we have almost a 500-acre farm. That’s a highlight,” the freshman said. “I wanted to network as well. Being an animal science major, I know those things are very important.”
Matthew Graves, a recruiter for Mountaire Farms, said he had heard good things about A&T’s agriculture and animal science programs.
“I’m recruiting talent for our management training program and for the internships that we have available now,” he said.
During lunch, the keynote speaker for the fair, Julian Archer, associate principal data scientist at PepsiCo Inc., spoke with the students about the ways the food industry is applying digital tools and artificial intelligence to planning crop planting, inventory management systems and social media marketing.
“When we talk about artificial intelligence, all we’re simply saying is we want a machine to mimic what a human being is able to do, and it’s able to do that using data,” said Archer. “That is essentially how it’s able to perceive, how it’s able to learn, and how it’s able to problem-solve.”
Syngenta US sponsored the career fair.
“We’ve done this several years now, and we appreciate our vendors’ participation and the partnership with the College of Agriculture,” said Carroll Moseley, Ph.D., head of state regulatory affairs.
