A variety of career opportunities were presented to more than 170 students at the Careers in Ag Day on Wednesday, Nov. 12, at the UNL Panhandle Research Extension and Education Center in Scottsbluff.
“I was here for the first year, and I think we had 25 or 30 students, and we had great buy-in from the community. The local ag community supports this thing wholeheartedly and does a great job. Now we're up close to 200 students every year, and it's just an opportunity for these young people to spend time with the AG leaders of this community,” said Paul Burgener, V.P. of Central U.S. Farm Management for Manulife Investment Management Ag Services.
The event features seven sessions, including conventional production agriculture and livestock, ag sales, and food science, as well as a career fair.
“We made a few modifications this year. I'm pretty excited about those. We have a job fair going on, so this is just an opportunity for those high school kids to take a look at what's available in the valley,” said Kelly Downer, Platte Valley Bank Agriculture Lending Department Manager.
Some of the businesses at the event included Burford Industries, Deines Irrigation, Farm Credit Services of America, Aulick Industry, and more, along with featured speaker Dean Lerwick of Pumpkin Creek Ranch. He spoke about the business owned by his brother Jared and him, Pumpkin Creek Ranch, which offers both brothers a career, one in cattle production and the other in sales and marketing.
“I think that's the fun part, explaining to them that hey, you can do a number of different things when you start thinking about data analytics and financial management, and then the opportunities outside of just production,” Burgener said.
The high school students in attendance were in an ag education class, FFA members, or both. Banner County Ag Instructor Mai Lee Olsen brought only FFA members this year. Her students explored four different rotations, including seed and chemical, agronomy, and the greenhouse, with a session for visiting the college and career fair. “A lot of them are looking into these fields specifically. I have a student right now who's a senior, he’s looking at either animal science or conventional ag production. He's not really sure, so this was a perfect opportunity for him to come today.”
Summing up the day's activities, Burgener said, “They are engaged, they are here, and they are excited.”
The Careers in Ag Day is hosted by the Scottsbluff/Gering Ag Business Committee. Sponsors include Farm Credit Services of America, Manulife Investment Management-Paul Burgener, Platte Valley Companies, and the University of Nebraska Extension.
