left to right: Melissa Moyer, Associate Director, Iowa Biotechnology Association, Hunter Anderson, Student at DMACC, Iowa Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Julie Kenney, and Jessica Hyland, Executive Director, Iowa Biotechnology Association.
Annually the AAI Foundation hosts the Agribusiness Career (ABC) Day for agriculture and agribusiness community college students. This event attracted nearly 280 students and advisors from fifteen community colleges with ag degrees in February. Fifteen students were awarded a $1,000 scholarship each from their sponsoring company. This year sponsors were joined on stage by Deputy Sec. Julie Kenney after she gave a brief overview of the department’s upcoming goals and international programs being worked on.
The AAI Foundation invites industry recognized speakers and companies to the ABC Day in Des Moines. This benefits students by introducing them to industry standard practices, such as interview expectations, real-world teachable moments, big picture and industry-specific issues, and even job opportunities.
Over twenty AAI members joined us after the ABC Day presentations for our 5th ever Student Job Fair. Jobs ranged from seasonal work to skill-specific internships. The Student Job Fair is successful for the invited students because of the uniqueness of the AAI membership company participation. Attending companies also benefit from having a wide spread of community college student workforce brought all to one place.
2019 Sponsoring Companies Include:
- AgVision
- Bayer CropScience
- CoBank
- Eldon C. Stutsman, Inc.
- Farm Credit Services of America
- Growmark FS
- Heartland Cooperative
- INTL FCStone (2 scholarships)
- Iowa Biotechnology Association (2 scholarships)
- Iowa Certified Crop Advisers Program
- Nationwide Insurance
- Nutrien Ag Solutions
- River Valley Cooperative
A special thanks to INTL FCStone, a long time member of the association, who became a “5 Star Sponsor” at the 2019 ABC Day. The five-star status is reserved for sponsoring companies who’ve provided over $5,000 worth of scholarships to Iowa community colleges students through the AAI Foundation.
In 2018, AAI Foundation recognized AgVision, Iowa Biotech, Farm Credit Services, Eldon C. Stutsman, Inc., and Growmark FS. Our industry sponsors are special to the foundation because they make this great event and financial support of students possible.
More about the AAI Foundation at www.foundation.agribiz.org