Students Complete Summer 2020 Internships
Although many summer activities were put on hold due to COVID-19, some students were still able to participate in summer internships. Internships are an important opportunity to valuable gain on-the-job experience and apply skills learned in the classroom. Here's a brief look a few summer internships.
This summer, I had the privilege of interning for Consolidated Grain and Barge as a Merchandising Intern in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This internship allowed me to gain a perspective of both a merchandising and operations side of Consolidated Grain and Barge and introduced me to the skills of how to derive key information to assist in company origination. Although I worked in an office setting in Tulsa, I also had the opportunity to experience the busy wheat harvest period at the Consolidated Grain and Barge facility in Enid, Oklahoma. I spent a week in Enid, and during this time I learned how to grade wheat, operate the wheat probe, and assisted in customer relations with trucking companies and local growers. I learned information that was applicable to the work I had been completing in the Tulsa office – such as protein grades and the discounts offered on hard red winter wheat. During my internship, I learned the process of basis and hedging in a cash business, the valuation of barge and truck freight and how this drove company exports, as well as the importance of communication and following up with customers to obtain valuable market information for the company. This internship helped me grow both professionally and personally and I am very thankful for my time spent in Tulsa. |
Antoinette Dorris, Accounting Intern, Garden City Co-op Garden City Co-op hired me to work with Kelly Drees in the Accounting and Finance department. During the spring semester I was able to start working with them through the Collegiate Career Development Program to sharpen my professional and technical skills before I went to the office during the summer. I completed multiple financial projects through the semester and the summer. These consisted of simplifying data to make it easier to understand and access in the future. The co-op helped me gain a better understanding of their grain process by having me shadow employees that are part of their grain department. I shadowed elevator managers, grain merchandisers and grain originators. I enjoyed the inclusion and the learning atmosphere I was a part of this summer. I was able to put college classes to real world experiences. The Garden City Co-op gave me the opportunity to learn more about their industry and gave me skills and values to use in future experiences. |
Natalie Harris is a senior majoring in Agribusiness and Global Food Systems Leadership. She began her internship with JBS, USA in Greeley, Colorado this past summer as a Fed Beef Sales and Marketing Intern. Some of her responsibilities included implementing a digital shelf recommendation for key formula customers to improve e-commerce, studied data and analytics to get a better picture of the ideal product, and attended sales meetings with the marketing and outside sales teams. Natalie appreciated the opportunities that JBS was able to extend and to keep their internship program an integral part of the company in the midst of all that’s happened this year. |
I am currently a senior in Agribusiness that is also obtaining a certificate in Risk Management. This past summer I interned for INTL FCStone, now known at StoneX, in Kansas City, Missouri. There, I was the intern for their Market Intelligence team. At first I felt intimidated and not qualified enough to be on this team, but quickly my feelings changed. My first project was predicting the lean hog index price for the livestock team. I ran many regressions and analyzed them. Luckily, I was very familiar with this kind of analysis thanks to my ag econ classes at K-State. Some of my other projects included predicting US corn and soybean yields and analyzing the differences between food consumed at home versus food consumed away from home. I also helped my team answer daily broker requests that came in. I was able to help my team on the current reports that they sent out, but also develop new reports to be sent out and posted to our portal. I am so grateful I took a step outside my comfort zone and said yes to this internship. I was able to learn how to navigate through different databases including Bloomberg, ProphetX and datamart. I learned how to properly read many USDA reports. I also was ale to further develop my excel skills and my communication skills. This internship showed me that I truly have a passion for data analysis and market research, and it also taught me to be confident in my findings. |
I interned with Central Valley Ag Cooperative as an Agronomy Sales Intern this summer. I was based out of Clifton, Kansas but spent my time traveling the whole area serviced by Central Valley Ag over the summer. I helped plant and maintain plots, I delivered seed, delivered chemical, offered recommendations for chemicals and fertilizer for producers, and even sold some dry fertilizer to a new customer for CVA. I learned a ton about chemical systems and soil fertility over the summer. My boss and mentor was phenomenal. He was excellent at helping me learn more the technical parts of agronomy. I fit in well with the company culture at CVA and enjoyed working for the cooperative. |
Avery Aust, Merchandising Intern, Consolidated Grain and Barge
Natalie Harris, Fed Beef Sales and Marketing Intern, JBS
Morgan Lowderman, Market Intelligence, INTL FCStone 
Eli Ohlde, Agronomy Sales Intern, Central Valley Ag Cooperative