Farm Shadows Program to focus on Agricultural Career Exploration
Our new farm shadow program is a wonderful opportunity for our future workforce to gain valuable insight into potential agriculture careers. Through partnerships with our members farming or working in careers in agriculture, we hope to provide students with an understanding of how their school coursework connects to the myriad jobs in our industry so they will come away with a better understanding of the skills needed to be successful. We want our area’s enthusiastic, bright minds to seek agricultural careers through this program.
We are seeking agricultural business partners that want to help mentor young leaders in a variety of ways such as:
- Offering job shadow opportunities at your business/farm
- Opening your business or farm for one of our Ag Career Exploration events (we will work with school and you to facilitate the experience)
We can also provide you with ways to connect with schools including:
- Volunteering for a Career Day speaking engagement at a local school
- Judging a Science Fair at a local school
- Serving as a judge during FFA contests such as parliamentary procedure, public speaking or job interview
- Volunteering at an Ag in the Classroom educational event to showcase your occupation
- Listing your career openings (part-time, summer, volunteer) through our monthly newsletter
Our farm shadow program provides a way to give back to the next generation through our middle school, high school and even some college programming. We feel this is a wonderful opportunity for our members to reach the next generation and get them excited about the diversity of careers related to the field of agriculture.
If you would like be included as a contact in this new program, please reach out to Diane Merrion or Bob Rohrer at 708-354-3276 or via email at [email protected] or [email protected].