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Agricultural Communication & Journalism Internships

Kansas Electric Cooperatives- Kennedy St. George

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As a second year student at K-State, I never would have guessed that such an incredible experience would have come my way. I had the opportunity to intern with Kansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc., from October 2013 through May of 2014.

Kansas Electric Cooperatives (KEC) is the statewide service organization for the rural electric cooperatives in Kansas. Formed in 1941, KEC represents the interests of our members which includes 29 distributive cooperatives and three generation and transmission electric co-ops. Located in Topeka, I commuted four days a week from Manhattan to be in the office. I also had the opportunity to see different parts of the state and worked from home some days as well.

I heard about the internship possibility after visiting the all university career fair in the fall and was hired on in October, after an internship with the State Fair of Texas. I was drawn to the internship due to the aspect of the magazine that was published and my interest in writing for a publication. Each month KEC and the communications team turns out Kansas Country Living magazine that has a circulation of 122,000 households.

Aside from the magazine, I was guaranteed a well rounded experience and I was not let down by that promise at all. My internship duties included writing for the magazine, as well as the newsletter, Rural Power, photography, and design; however, I got a lot more than that. I also had the opportunity to do event planning, advertisement sales, company representative at career shows and member annual meetings for our cooperatives across the state, interviewer for youth tour participants, and so much more. I had only opened Adobe suit once prior to this experience and now I have it on my personal computer and use it somewhere once a day.

My writings included feature stories, interview recaps, statewide news, legal issues that our members needed to know about, and even monthly book reviews. Each month I had the opportunity to layout and design cooperative specific centerspreads that are inserted into the magazine. I learned the value to deadlines when my direct supervisor was on maternity leave for two magazines!

A photo I took was even used on the cover of February 2014’s magazine! I took a lot of pictures for covers and of events that the cooperatives held across the state for their members. The photos were then used for projects either at KEC for the statewide or within the cooperatives centerspreads. Through my photography, I was able to learn more about Photoshop and had many projects to utilize what I learned. Trying to do a cover of KCL was my favorite thing to do in Photoshop.

I got a well-rounded experience and a lot of pieces to build my portfolio with my time at KEC. I have truly enjoyed the sense of community for the members we work for and this summer I will be headed to Dodge City for the communications specialist intern position with Victory Electric, one of the members that I help now through the state wide.

The professionalism and the skills that I acquired through my internship really set in stone for me that I enjoy working for a publication, working on deadline, and really do enjoy writing as much as I thought I had.

I cannot wait to see where this degree leads me in the future, but for now I couldn’t be more pleased for the opportunities that have been presented to me from the internship with Shana Read, Carrie Kimberlin, and the rest of the staff at Kansas Electric Cooperatives.

Certified Angus Beef Internship- Meg Drake

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This past summer I served as the Industry Information Intern with Certified Angus Beef.  The internship was based out of Manhattan, Kan.

Certified Angus Beef, or CAB, is a not-for-profit organization that is considered a subsidiary of the American Angus Association.  CAB’s operational strategies and various business ventures are multi-faceted.

The company’s main purpose is to promote Angus beef and in turn generate more revenue for its producers.  They approach this operational goal from many different angles and work with different links in the production chain to accomplish their mission.  Not only does CAB license feedlots and restaurants but their marketing department also provides materials to those who wish to advertise the fact that they sell or produce CAB branded meat.

The Industry Information Division works mostly with producers and feedlots.  Their goals are to provide literature and information highlighting or featuring feedlots and producers that have done exceptionally well in terms of producing a high quality and consistent Certified Angus Beef product.

Some of my duties as the Industry Information Intern included meeting with and writing articles featuring producers, industry leaders, and even restaurant chefs.   On a day-to-day basis I was also assigned videos and transcriptions that had to be condensed down to 3-minute excerpts to be featured as “Angus VNRs” or video news releases that were later featured during “The Angus Report.”  I was also allowed the opportunity to record and serve as the voiceover for some of these VNRs.  Other duties included, but were not limited to, constructing news releases for various events, transcribing interviews, writing blog entries, and updating social media sites.

Throughout the duration of my time spent with CAB I not only learned many things about myself as a writer but I gained a better understanding of the value-added beef industry and learned what it was like to be a full-time employee.

Under my supervisor, and Director of the Industry Information Division, Steve Suther, I feel that I was able to advance my writing skills.  As an ex-Kansas State instructor and someone who has worked in the industry as a journalist for many years, Mr. Suther’s edits provided me with insights into style and how to make my writing more effective when trying to reach a specific audience.  I greatly valued his inputs and have kept all of my articles on file for future reference.

Other things I learned while interning with CAB were how to properly write for video broadcast and how to effectively communicate with producers for the purpose of conducting an efficient interview.  It is important when constructing a video script to first captivate audience members then provide information between excerpts as succinctly as possible.  It is also important that excerpts flow and when put together make sense.  In regard to interviewing producers, I learned that it is crucial to prepare ahead of time.  Familiarizing yourself with a producers operation helps when devising effective questions, it also shows he or she that you care about their business.  In many cases they are more open to sharing information with you and are more comfortable around you as an interviewer if you have done your research first.  Credibility is essential as a writer.

Upon completion of my internship experience I was able to discern between what I excelled in and what I didn’t care for as much.  I feel as though I learned a lot about who I am as a person and what kind of career path I’ll be pursuing in the future.

Areas that I enjoyed in particular were the broadcasting and social media components of the internship.  When searching for a job in the future, these two areas are ones that I can list as being comfortable with and proficient in.  I also enjoyed traveling and visiting with cattle producers.  Getting to interact with people that are passionate about the industry is another component I will look for when deciding upon a career.

American Paint Horse Association Internship- Nicole Woods

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This summer I interned for the American Paint Horse Association as a Graphic Artist. My internship began in May and ended in August. The final week when applications were being accepted, my laptop crashed and I didn’t have all of the materials that APHA was requesting, however, I still applied.  I was first contacted by Art Vasquez, the Creative Director, and was asked if I’d like to intern with APHA. I accepted the invitation and two weeks later I was off to Fort Worth, TX.

            My first few weeks at APHA were kind of stressful but after I got acclimated from being completely on my own I really started to like my job. I loved that I had creative freedom and was given a clean slate each time I was handed a story that needed to be designed. The process for getting to design was, I would have to check a tray each day and then I would have to go where files were located. Within the file would be all of the necessary pictures and the story for me to import on to the pages. I used InDesign and Photoshop the most, however I was also taught how to do a little bit of web design for their new website.

Most of the designs I did for APHA were for three publications, their racing journal, the Paint Horse Connection and the Paint Horse Journal. These magazines reach about 60-70 thousand people worldwide. This was a great opportunity for me to get work published and seen around the world. Some of my other duties were to assist with internal projects that needed completed. A few designs I made were for the Youth World Show and even some for the Open Amateur World Show. I made flyers, banners and large checks that were given to winners in particular classes at the Youth World Show. I was also in charge of building client ads that went in all three publications.  Some of my favorite projects were building fresh client ads and also making four page spreads. Another thing I liked is I got to work in color, versus like in the newspaper industry everything is mostly in black and white.

While I was at APHA I was also involved with the re-constructing of the company. I was involved with giving my outside opinion about the company and also any changes that I would make if I were in the company. By going to meetings I got to see how different areas of the company worked together to make the company function and complete internal tasks.

What I learned most was how to be a team player. I also feel very blessed because I got to experience something that I have dreamed of since I was a child. Being involved in this company showed me what it would be like to work a full-time job and try and do things outside of work. I also learned that it is important to meet someone more than one time before you start to live with them, even if they are family. I am also glad that I was able to confirm that I have chosen the right career path for me. By working hard and persevering I feel that I was able to complete a task that I was told for a long time that I couldn’t do. That feeling is always rewarding.

Senator Jerry Moran Press Internship- Jordan Hildebrand

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This last summer, I took the risk of a lifetime when I accepted an internship with Senator Jerry Moran’s office in Washington, D.C.  When I had originally applied for the program I had marked that I was interested in staying in Kansas because I thought it would give me a better shot at getting in. At first, they were interested in letting me do so. If I had stayed in Kansas, I would have been a legislative intern. However, one day in early April, I got an unexpected phone call from Washington, D.C. The Director of Communications for Senator Moran wanted me to move out to D.C. and be their official press intern. Despite being terrified of living in the big city, not knowing anyone or my way around I accepted the opportunity of a lifetime.

Among my daily duties was scouring the Internet for articles that mentioned the Senator. I learned how to utilize RSS feeds, complete a task quickly and efficiently and have a report be consistent. I would also follow the Senator and his press secretary to meetings with Kansans, photograph the meetings and draft social media posts about them. I would also coordinate on the fly the meetings and photo ops that were altered by weather.  This helped me develop quick problem solving skills and memorize the quickest routes through the Capitol and Senate buildings.

Toward the end of the day I would receive PDFs of clips from local Kansas newspapers about the Senator or of stories that the Senator might be interested in. I actually found out that my local bank in my hometown had changed names because of these daily PDFs. I would compile them, send them to staff along with a daily Kansas commodity report, and place the set of papers on the Senator’s desk. The Senator would then read this every night to make sure he was up to date on Kansas items. Some days I would have to gently remind the state offices to send me the clips which taught me how to “nag” in a professional manner that didn’t step on anyone’s toes.  I would also write Media Advisories about Senator Moran’s future visits and make follow up calls with the media outlets we sent them to. Before, I didn’t know what a media advisory was, but I have carried on the practice into several campaigns I have been involved with since (for example Hunger Aid 2013 and the Alpha Zeta Fall Speaker).

Weekly duties included assembling the list of every Kansan who passed through the office, their hometown and the nature of the visit. This information would then be shared in Senator Moran’s weekly newsletter, Kansas Common Sense. I would also give one or two capital tours every week. Sometimes when you walk through the Capitol building, you’ll see nervous looking interns giving tours out of an official tour book. These are not Senator Moran’s interns. We have a special “how to give tours” tour both with an official Congressional tour guide and with our staffers. We have a week to memorize where to go, what to say, commonly asked questions, etc. After that, we give the tour to Kansans who request it by memory. We take this very seriously, and I view it almost like being a cast member at Disney. This may be a person’s only time at the Capitol, so take it seriously and go above and beyond. I actually snuck a tour group out onto the Speaker of the House’s private balcony once. I’m pretty sure this makes me a felon, but what the Capitol Police doesn’t know about me won’t hurt them.

Summer long duties included assembling an archive of national level clips about the Senator (for example, out of The New York Times, POLITICO,, etc.). I also updated the Kansas Press List, which was me calling every media office in Kansas to make sure our records were correct. Most of the time, they were not. I was terrified of making cold calls before this internship. Now, I definitely am not.

Sporadic duties included drafting social media posts not regarding visits, writing press releases, going to official meetings with the Senator, writing an Op-Ed for the Senator, interacting with youth organizations, and other items that would pop up throughout the day. I also got to see the Farm Bill get passed through the Senate in the actual chambers as it was happening. It would have been much cooler if it actually passed through the entire congress, though.

I learned so much because of this internship. It was always my dream to work in D.C., and I accomplished it before I was even 21 years old. I also figured out that politics probably isn’t what I want to be in for the rest of my life. It was fun, but a little too frustrating and fast paced for my taste. I do know for certain that Kansas is very lucky to have both Senator Moran and Senator Roberts representing us. Both are gentlemen who genuinely care about Kansans. Even though graduation is looming and I still don’t have a “life plan”, I do know that I would like to stay in the Mid-West, and the internship was definitely the deciding factor in that. The east coast is a nice place to visit, not to live for me.

Huncovsky Marketing Internship- Shelbi Stous

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My internship was with Huncovsky Marketing began in September 2012 at the Kansas State Fair taking backdrop and candid photos at the livestock show. The following month, the company hired me again to shoot photos at the Kansas Junior Livestock Show in Wichita.

Huncovsky Marketing is owned by Quint Huncovsky and located in Manhattan. It’s a small business with 2-3 part time employees, and the office is located out of Quint’s home. Huncovsky Marketing is a full-service marketing firm specializing in agricultural products, mainly livestock. Services include email advertising, print media and digital media. Most business comes from cattle sale catalogs, email blasts, advertisement design, sale photos and sale videos.

My role with Huncovsky Marketing varies depending on what needs to be done. During the winter months when ranches are preparing for sales, I help photograph and video the cattle that will be sold. For example, last winter River Creek Farms hired Quint to take the photos and videos for their sale. Quint and I went to the ranch and set up a picture and video pen to shoot in. Each head of cattle is run through the pen individually. Sometimes my job would be to ensure the cattle calmly walked the fence line and then turn them around when they reach the end, or stop in a certain way that makes them look good for the picture. This sounds boring, but it’s actually a very tiring and difficult job. Sometimes there are 100 head of cattle we have to get through in a day, and not all of them cooperate. (I’ve only had to jump up on the fence twice to avoid being ran over by an upset heifer or bull.) Other times, I get to be behind the video camera and shoot the footage of the cattle. There are many details in taking photos and videos to ensure the cattle look their best so they look attractive to the people interested in purchasing them. After the shooting process, the videos need edited and published. Even if I don’t go out to the ranches to shoot, Quint still gives me the videos to edit. Each animal has an individual YouTube video anywhere between 20 seconds and one minute and 30 seconds and includes the ranch’s logo and the lot number for that specific animal.

For sale catalogs, my main responsibility is gathering pedigree information and EPD’s for the cattle. The ranch provides us registration information for each head, and the breed association website provides the individual information for each animal. Each animal that will be sold in the sale will have its own information in the catalog.

I found out about this internship through a friend who had also done some work for Quint. Because I worked hard at the two shows, he continued to ask me to work for him. I am very glad that I was able to work for Huncovsky Marketing because I discovered that livestock marketing is what I want to do in my future. I would like to work for Quint full-time someday, but right now he is not expanding the business enough to hire someone full-time. He hopes to expand in the next three or four years, but he has mentioned eventually bringing me on the team full-time. Not only did I realize that livestock marketing is what I really enjoy doing, but I gained livestock handling skills also. People may be hard to work with, but at least you can verbally tell them what you need them to do and they (should be able to) understand you. With livestock, you can tell them all you want, but they won’t understand. I’ve gained a lot of patience and understanding with these animals, especially cattle. I also learned valuable customer relation skills. Word of mouth is a strong way to gain business, and ranchers like to talk. For example, it’s great to do business with someone such as taking photos for their sale catalog, but if you can actually attend their sale, it shows that you not only care about your business, but you care about their business too. They probably will be happy and impressed that you attended the sale, and might continue to do business with you in the future and recommend you to other ranchers.

Like any industry, the livestock world has its trends. Some trends fade out, and some last for a very long time. After I started working for Quint, I was exposed more to the livestock world. I even got a job at one of the university’s animal units to gain more experience with cattle. I started to see more and more trends and ideas that people had, and could figure out if others were going to follow. There have been good trends and bad ones, but the good ones are really good, and the people who paved the way are greatly benefiting from it. I have learned to not be scared to lead the way in an industry. We shouldn’t be scared to try new ideas because they might take off and become more popular than anyone would have thought. Of course, it’s always good to think an idea through all the way and develop it fully before just throwing it out there.

Overall, my internship with Huncovsky Marketing has been a wonderful experience. I hope to return to Manhattan in a few years and work for him full-time. As much as I complained about the cold, windy and muddy picture pen, I will really miss going out to ranches to take photos and videos this winter.

Mid Kansas Cooperative Internship- Calli Mathews

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Mid Kansas Cooperative Association is a full-service farm cooperative offering a complete line of supplies and services for both farm and urban customers in 11 counties throughout central Kansas. MKC has a current membership of more than 4,800 members. MKC was founded in 1965 by the merger of three neighboring cooperatives in Moundridge, Buhler, and Groveland. Since its founding, it has grown in size and territory through mergers and acquisitions. More than 200 employees play an important role in the growth and success of MKC. Thirty-four grain locations offer combined elevator space of 29.3 million bushels. Wheat is the major crop grown. Due to the area having a strong aquifer underlying much of its territory, this allows irrigation of corn and soybeans. MKC offers a lot of different services some of which include: Agronomy, Precision Ag, Energy, Feed, Grain, and Financial assistance. I was fortunate enough to have interned for MKC and will be discussing the things that I gained from this experience.

During my internship, I was assigned a lot of different duties. When I first arrived at MKC, my first task was heading the Annual Meeting. Some of my responsibilities involved finding a caterer, photographer, florist, entertainment, and workers to help with registration. The event took place at the State Fair Grounds in Hutchinson, Kansas. We were only allowed 48 hours to set up for the event and a lot of time went into setting up stages, decorations, tables and chairs. During the Annual Meeting, I was responsible for prompting speakers and working with the tech employees.

The answer plot session that MKC provided was an educational tool for the farmers to see the different crop and herbicide varieties that would fit into their crop rotations. My responsibility was to send out the mailings providing the general information about the event. The day of the event I was heading the registration table and overseeing the preparation of the food. Along with this event came customer appreciation meals. After wheat harvest is over MKC puts on meals at the different locations within their territory. Among these, the MKC employees and I would prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner for the members and their families. This was an opportunity for MKC to get out among their members and show the appreciation they have for them. This was the most enjoyable part of my internship because I was able to get out and meet the variety of people that MKC provided services to.

I was also involved in heading the community stewardship campaign. MKC was fortunate enough to be in a partnership with Land O Lakes, in which we were able to bid for grants to help out communities in our surrounding area. I was able to meet the different organizations and help make their projects come true. Within the last five years, MKC has been able to donate over $300,000 to different organizations. I was also able to use my dsign skills by heading other campaign projects for Team Marketing Alliance, which was the Grain division for MKC. Coupling that, I brainstormed ideas for the new MKC website and Facebook page. This was something I was apprehensive about, but gained a lot of experience and confidence through working with graphic designers and the tech employees.

I was able to gain a lot of experience by writing for the company website, employee newsletter and the MKC magazine “Connections”. This was a neat aspect of the internship because I was able to interview new people and employees. Also, I got the opportunity to write all of the biographies for the Field Marketers, Certified Energy Specialist and board members. Along with the writing I got a lot of editing experience. MKC invited their employees to write articles for both publications, so with that all of them needed editing.

MKC taught me a lot about how to be confident in myself and take charge in any situation. A lot of that was due to my supervisor who was diagnosed with cancer right before my internship began. I had to hit the ground running the moment I set foot in her office. She gave me the opportunity to step up and use the skills that I obtained in class and put them to work in the real world. I was able to put my public speaking skills to the test when I was asked to give a presentation to the CEO and board members about the new Facebook page I was creating. Overall, I was able to understand the cooperative sector. Before this experience I hadn’t put much thought into what a Coop really was. However, after being so involved with MKC I learned that the cooperative sector is where I would like to stay. At the end of the day, we are there for the farmers and their families and I appreciated the effort that MKC put into satisfying each and every one of them.

Kansas Wheat Internship- Nicole Stieben

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Kansas Wheat is the cooperative agreement between the Kansas Wheat Commission and the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers. The Kansas Wheat Commission is an advocacy organization, which is funded by Kansas wheat growers. This group works to secure the future of wheat growth in Kansas through research, education and domestic and international market development. The Kansas Association of Wheat Growers is a member-governed organization responsible for representing wheat growers at a national level by providing grass-roots leadership to the U.S. wheat industry. Together, these two entities work through Kansas Wheat to make sure the importance of wheat is known to not only producers, but consumers and buyers as well.

As the communications intern at Kansas Wheat this summer, I had many daily responsibilities that included updating the computer database for the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, writing press releases on various wheat related issues or events and editing work of other staff members as Kansas Wheat.

I also had a few larger projects that I worked on this summer. From the very start of my internship I was put in charge of making posters, flyers and other forms of publicity for this year’s National Festival of Breads. This baking competition happens every other year and much planning is put into its success, so getting to play a role in this was a great experience. I also did daily harvest reports where I would call around to wheat elevators in Kansas, as well as wheat farmers, to find out the scoop of how their wheat harvest was going. I have previous experience with wheat harvest as I spent many summers working at the elevator in my hometown, so getting to hear from many elevator managers about the progress of harvest in their area was a highlight of this project.

I also had a couple of design projects that were assigned to me during the internship. After the National Festival of Breads was completed, I put together an annual cookbook of the recipes, which was handed out at the State Fair and distributed among nutrition educators around the state. In addition to the cookbook, I was also in charge of putting together the 2011 Kansas Wheat Annual Report. I was challenged with coming up with a fresh design scheme for the report and had fun using techniques I learned from previous experience and my classes at K-State.

During my internship at Kansas Wheat I learned valuable lessons and gained experience that I will use for the rest of my life. The sense of responsibility I was given as an intern helped me the most, as I was given the challenge of meeting deadlines, contacting sources, generating story ideas and being held accountable for my work. I also learned to not be afraid to make mistakes, because in fact that is when you will grow the most.

I have always been a bit reluctant to ask a ton of questions when I’m not sure of what I’m supposed to do. Usually I just try a bunch of different ways until I find something that works for me. But this summer I was faced with deadlines and time constraints that did not allow for this method, so I learned to ask questions and not be afraid of sounding stupid and it turned out to be the best way to show how interested I was in Kansas Wheat as an organization. As soon as I spoke up and voiced my opinion about projects or simple day-to-day tasks, the rest of the staff realized my interest in the success of Kansas Wheat and I was granted more responsibility.

American Agricultural Editors Association Internship- Bethany Sanderson

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I was the intern for the American Agricultural Editors Association, an organization made up a variety of ag communicators from writers and editors to photographers and public relations professionals. This year, AAEA chose Living the Country Life, a publication of the Meredith Corporation, to host the internship.

The Meredith Corporation is home to 14 leading magazine brands, including Better Homes and Garden, Ladies’ Home Journal and Midwest Living, and more than 175 special interest publications. They are involved with syndicated television and air in 50 markets nationwide. They are also active in broadband television, with more than one million video plays per month. A large section of the corporation is also devoted to integrated marketing. They have developed relationships with leading retailers like Walmart and Home Depot to promote Meredith brands and products, in addition to offering integrated marketing services to leading brands such as Kraft, Century21, Chrysler, Jonson & Johnson, DirecTV and more.

Living the Country Life, where I primarily worked, is a smaller publication that was launched in 2001 from Successful Farming. Instead of focusing on production agriculture, Living the Country Life focuses on people who live in the country simply to enjoy a rural lifestyle. They tend to be affluent and have a combined annual buying power of more than $32 billion.

Living the Country Life is a good example of a brand that has embraced the multimedia world consumers now interact with. In addition to the magazine, which is published quarterly with a circulation of 200,000, it has a website, e-newsletters, daily radio programs and until recently, a television program. The editor, Betsy Freese, also has a blog that she updates daily, and she manages Facebook and Twitter accounts for the brand.

The majority of my time at Living the Country Life was spent providing content for the fall issues of the magazine. I produced four stories for the issue, including the cover story on horse and stock trailers. I also worked on providing additional content for the beef cattle section of the website that is sponsored by Purina. I wrote and compiled a slideshow based on Beef Quality Assurance’s code of cattle care. Other beef stories I wrote are being held back in the “story bank” for another magazine issue, after which time Betsy may choose to post them on the website as well.

Although I did not have the time or opportunity to experiment with radio programming, I did participate in brainstorming sessions as the radio editors put together the calendar of topics for the upcoming fiscal year. They recorded programs based on several of my ideas.

As the AAEA intern, I had responsibilities related to Ag Media Summit as well. I was primarily responsible for the joint awards ceremony between AAEA and the Livestock Publications Council. I put together the script for those presenting awards and created the PowerPoint presentation for the ceremony This project required participation several days prior to leaving for the conference and also took up a significant amount of my time at the conference.

I also helped with decorating, registration, moderating sessions, putting up signs and other tasks at the conference as needed.

I enjoyed seeing first hand at Living the Country Life the reality of convergent media in the workplace today. While I hear about convergent media in the classroom a lot, it was exciting to see how this played out every day at the magazine.

It also served as a good introduction for me to using social media for professional and business purposes I watched Betsy Freese’s Facebook posts and tweets and had conversations with her about her philosophy of using social media to promote the brand. While she felt the purpose of social media was to drive traffic to their main website, she knew that limiting herself to only sharing links to their website would decrease her fans and following. Her posts and tweets were more balanced, sharing other news or sometimes a personal post about her life in the country, in addition to direction traffic to the website.

The most important takeaway for me, however, was the delicate balance of advertising and editorial content. While I knew in theory that advertising paid for magazines, I had no idea how much thought must go in to providing content that readers will enjoy and that keeps advertisers happy. This is a particular issue at Living the Country Life because it is a free magazine. All of their revenue comes from ad sales.

The publishing industry today is more than just writing stories and selling ads. The sales and editorial teams at the magazine work together to come up with an editorial calendar that they believe is optimal to sell ads (and thus pay for the magazine) to satisfy readers.

I enjoyed the experience in the publishing industry. If I decide to pursue a career in that direction, I definitely plan to look for a job that incorporates multimedia the way Living the Country Life does. I am also open to exploring the public relations industry or integrated marketing jobs similar to what Meredith offers.

Certified Angus Beef Internship- Wyatt Bechtel

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For my internship I worked with Certified Angus Beef with their Industry Information Division as a writing intern. CAB is a branded beef program that helps promote beef produced by Angus cattle. The brand is owned by approximately 30,000 American Angus Association members and was established in 1978 by several Ohio cattlemen. The organization has maintained its roots in Ohio by having the headquarters in Wooster.

With the Industry Information Division the purpose is to inform producers about management techniques or new research that will aid them in meeting the parameters of CAB’s program. My supervisor was the director of the division, Steve Suther, who is based out of Onaga, Kansas. Much of my correspondence with Steven for stories or other assignments was via email. Miranda Reiman was another member of the Industry Information team who sent me work, and on certain occasions Laura Nelson would have assignments for me too. Miranda is based out of her home in Cozard, Nebraska, and Laura works in the main office in Wooster. During my internship I worked at the Supply Development Office in Manhattan.

I worked from May 16 to July 28, and I have also done some work with CAB during the school year on a freelance basis. Each week I worked approximately 40 hours during the summer and had some overtime here and there. My approximate amount of hours worked would be 450 hours. I had hoped to work some more freelance jobs for CAB during the school year, but the company had several other interns during this time so there was not enough writing to divide between us.

I wrote news releases and feature stories covering research studies, events, and producer profiles. Recording video and audio for stories was another duty I had. During the summer I would take pictures of black hided cattle that looked to have an Angus background when I drove home to Eureka. I would also take pictures of cattle on my ranch on weekends. This was a way for me to help CAB increase their photos of stocker cattle as they had a limited number on hand before my internship. It also allowed me to build up some more hours and hone my photography skills. I even assisted in editing copy on the CAB Partners website, which served as a precursor to much of the website design and editing I would do in the upcoming months.

Learning was a large part of my experience at CAB. While working with the brand, I improved my interviewing skills from trial and error. On a near daily basis I had to engage in phone call interviews with cow-calf producers, feedlot managers, university researchers, and people involved with beef marketing. Doing these calls over the phone was at first difficult for me as I had not done this much prior to working at CAB. However, most of my interactions with the people I interviewed went really well because I tried to make this conversational. I also conducted some interviews in person and via email. Time management was a large part of the internship as I had many different tasks I had to perform and deadlines to meet. It helped that I was required to keep time sheets detailing what I had done which had to be turned in weekly. I took better pictures as I gained more experience with the camera I was assigned. My images went from standard shots of black hided cattle to those with improved lighting and composition.

This was a great internship for me as it joined many forms of media together. My goal is to be involved in agricultural communications with the beef industry and working with CAB is a major boost for my resume. Because I want to work in the beef industry this was a great way to learn about industry from start to finish. I am currently applying for positions and many are requiring writing samples, so having this internship helped me add to my portfolio while also getting published. I really enjoyed my time with CAB and maybe in the future I can work again with their wonderful organization.

KFRM Internship- Taylor James

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The internship for Taylor Communications, or more specifically, KFRM 550 AM began in late May. The station I was based out of happened to be in my hometown of Clay Center. It is a medium size radio station that shares office and studio space with KCLY, which is a FM sister station of 550 AM. No fancy title, I was just known around the office as the summer intern.

For the first couple of weeks my duties consisted of researching issues facing the wheat harvest in Oklahoma and Kansas. KFRM’s broadcast region stretches into several states, but the main focus for the wheat tour was everything north of Interstate 40 and the Kansas-Nebraska border. I spent about a week looking up which varieties of wheat where the most prevalent in the area, communication with extension agents to glean local information and researching diseases and pests that were likely to be harmful in 2010.

While I was at the station and not on the road, I helped record some advertisements. This was a great learning tool as it familiarized me with being able to run the equipment and modify ads so that they were a better fit for the customer. The sound equipment became vital to be able to use for the next part of my internship at county fairs as well as recording sound bites for portfolios, scholarships, etc.

I began the wheat tour by traveling down to Yukon, Oklahoma on the last week of May. Along the way I stopped at a few northern and central Oklahoma grain elevators to get a grasp on how soon they would be ripe to harvest in their regions. Anxiously awaiting combines and harvest crews I was dismayed upon arriving in Yukon and realized they were still a day or two away from cutting. While this may not seem like a big deal, the radio station had already allotted time for eight radio broadcasts a day from the wheat tour. They also had sponsors for the tour that were expecting to get in their radio plugs. I was able to scrounge enough reports to keep the places filled until two days of rain hit the region. Still, there were radio spots with my name on them back at the station. I was able to rely on public speaking and common ground to find people associated with the harvest and get them to talk to me about what they had seen or heard. This phase of the internship was a bit like trial by fire; I hadn’t had much experience at getting interviewees and was placed in a position of finding 5-6 a day. It was a great time to realize the scope and weight of my job.

After spending four weeks and a shade of 6500 miles in the Harvest Tour Chevy Equinox, I traded it in for a regular cab Dodge pickup and cargo trailer for the 2010 County Fair Tour. Using this I would travel to 30 county fairs in Kansas. County fairs ranged from Syracuse, Kansas in western Kansas to Cowley County in the southeast.

The first county fair was in Great Bend, Kansas. It became evident to me that this part of the job would be considerably easier to accomplish as some interviewees were turned away. Pulling into a fairgrounds with a radio truck and trailer was like an ice cream truck to some of these 4-Hers, parents, extension agents and fair board members. Although there were nine spots to fill every day on the air, I usually ended up being done recording within an hour or two of being on the grounds. Some kids were shy, but would quickly open up when they got past the part of having large headphones on their heads and began to talk about their projects. Being a 4-H member as I kid I had several projects, but there were a lot I had never heard of while being at the county fairs. Turtles, mice, snakes, robotics, even alternative energy were projects that came up while on the road. It was also greatly helpful to find extension agents and other people of interest at the fair to shift the spotlight onto fair activities and other community aspects of the fair.

Throughout the summer I learned a lot about deadline responsibility, time management, being able to work with on air talent and sponsors and gave me my first taste of professional employment. Being able to fill those spots on the air allowed me to better utilize my location and communication skills to make sure the employees back at the station didn’t have to do extra work to juggle time slots. This was a first time for me working with sponsors and receiving a new list of them every day for the fair tour proved to be difficult to change and work into a program that I had to keep versatile to be able to develop into completion every day. My internship ended in August officially, but I was asked to join the National Association of Farm Broadcasters at their National Convention in Kansas City in November. While there I met a large group of smart, experienced talent that offered advice and career opportunities down the road. The most rewarding part of my internship was being chosen for the Glen Kummerow Memorial Scholarship and being able to talk in front of the convention. This was the most rewarding to me as I was able to tell my story and how I had benefited from being a part of agricultural communications and agriculture radio.

3i SHOW Internship- Jennifer Ochs

Posted on by chantelles

The saying “time flies when you are having fun” is so very true. It seems like yesterday I was moving into the dorms and now I am about to graduate from college. Last spring I realized that I really wanted to get a summer internship to build my agricultural communications skills and prepare myself for the professional world outside of college. I was hoping to find something close to home in Jetmore, Kansas and I knew that there were not many if any established communications internships in the area. So I began to think about what I really wanted to do with my degree and came to the conclusion that I would be best working in advertising, marketing and sales.

Growing up I have always enjoyed attending trade shows, especially farm shows and luck for me one of the largest farm shows in Kansas is a short 30 minute drive from my house and is known as the 3i SHOW. I did some research on the show and then I sent a short email to the 3i SHOW asking if they have ever had a summer intern. I told them I felt it would be highly beneficial to have a summer communications intern to assist in the communications before, during and after the show. They replied shortly after and said that they did not have a program but would forward the email to the president of the 3i SHOW for consideration. A few weeks later I received a call from the 3i SHOW asking me to come in for an interview and to send my resume. The interview was in March and they offered me the position immediately after the interview.

My work at the 3i SHOW was to manage all communications. My duties included writing press releases, designing advertisements, working on the spring and summer WKMA Newsletters, taking pictures, updating Facebook and Twitter, working with logo designs, and sending out email blasts to exhibitors, volunteers and media about upcoming events and news regarding the show. I also spent some time doing general office work when needed.

The most difficult thing about my internship was trying to keep 500 exhibitors happy. Before the show I would assist in helping place last minute exhibitor requests in the available spaces, during the show I would talk to exhibitors about how the show was going for them and try to fix any complaints they may have.

My communications skills have improved because of my experience at the 3i SHOW, and I am now a better agricultural communicator because of this opportunity. I can now write a press release and feel comfortable about my writing, I am more knowledgeable about the Adobe Design Suite, I am more comfortable speaking in public, I enjoy working with social media for a business, and most importantly I am assured that choosing to be an agricultural communicator is what I am best at and what I love to do.

This internship has helped prepare me for my future careers in agricultural communications. Overall this experience has been great, and I am very grateful that they took the chance to hire me as the Communications Intern for the summer. The skills I have gained will be valuable for the rest of my career and the people I met will be great contacts to help me land jobs in the future. While I was not paid for this internship, I was honored to receive the 2013 WKMA Scholarship. I truly enjoyed my time spent at the 3i SHOW, and I would encourage anyone interested in farm shows or communications in southwest Kansas to contact the 3i SHOW for a potential internship opportunity.

DRIVE Livestock Internship- Chelsey Smith

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I interned for DRIVE Livestock, a company that was created in 2011. DRIVE recognizes achievement, encourages personal development and educates livestock youth on the opportunities in agriculture through trendy, consistent, accurate and relevant media.

While at DRIVE, I was the social media and events promotions intern. My duties were directly related to DRIVE social media platforms, which drive our content on our website and in our print publication. I created, developed, maintained and managed our social media platforms; Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. When the new website was ready for use I started incorporating this social media outlet into my daily routine. The goal for every day was to post on Facebook using an image, tweet about something DRIVE was doing or something related to youth in the stock show industry, as well as post a photo on Instagram. The tough part about creating engagement on our social media outlets is that each outlet reaches or engages with a different demographic audience. In addition to managing our social networking accounts, I was also responsible for formulating and executing contests for our followers to participate in.

Throughout this internship I had an opportunity to learn many skills that I considered to be life essentials that I wasn’t expecting to learn throughout the semester. The work environment at DRIVE was very unique. No one at the company was over the age of 30 and therefore the workplace was very competitive even though no one had to compete for their job to keep it. Working as a team to accomplish a goal for a customer was emphasized but carried out in a unique way.

When I started this internship I was hoping it would help me to determine what I want to do with my future. I do not believe marketing and advertising are in my future, but I have learned a great deal that can be applied to just about any career I may choose. The owner for Encore Visions and DRIVE, Jackie Lackey, made a statement early in my internship, which I had heard before but never fully embraced, “competition is key, life is about whom you know, not what you know.” This internship really taught me that especially in the livestock industry, success is determined from hard work, competition and whom one knows.