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Agricultural Communication & Journalism Internships

Tag: Mid Kansas Cooperative

Mid Kansas Cooperative – Shaylee Arpin

Posted on by Courtney Boman

Most kids growing up in a large town or city have little access to knowledge about agriculture, farming or even something as simple as where their food comes from. My story would have been the same if my parents had not put my siblings and me into the Central Kansas District 4-H program. For twelve years, I dove head first into learning and soaking up as much information as I could. Because of my experiences with the 4-H program, I chose to major in agricultural communications and journalism with a minor in animal science and industry at Kansas State University.

Through the past 10 months, I have interned with Mid Kansas Cooperative (MKC). I joined MKC in January as part of the Collegiate Career Development Program. A program designed to turn interns into professionals and hopefully retain interns for full-time positions with partners of the program including MKC, Dow, WinField, CoBank and Land O’Lakes. Normal internships run from late May to early August.

To share my experiences, I built a list of the most valuable lessons I learned and my experiences learning them.

  1. Writing is THE most important skill you will learn.

Throughout my ACJ and journalism classes, I had professors tell me that even if I was not as interested in writing as I was in photography or graphic design, I would still have to know how to write. Boy, were they more right than I knew. For MKC, I wrote feature articles that were placed into the employee newsletter and online.

  1. Fake it until you make it or just ask.

I learned as I went further into my internship that if I did not know how to do something, I could sit and try to figure it out or I could just as easily ask! My boss was always willing to show me how to do something. One of my main responsibilities was to produce the employee newsletter. When I started I had trouble working with the formatting of the newsletter. My boss was more than willing to teach me how to do something or what I could do to change an element to make it better.

  1. You probably don’t know exactly what you’re good at.

Throughout an internship, you will get lots of experience in various areas. I found through my internship that I have a passion for graphic design. Before, I focused on working on my photography skills. Now, I have a passion for both and can work on both skills!

  1. You’re going to grow a lot.

My internship at MKC has made me grow both professionally but also personally. I think my biggest area of growth throughout the internship has been learning how to work in a professional setting and how to share my opinions or preferences in writing, photography, or design. MKC has helped me build my professional portfolio and taught me professional skills such as email writing and best interview practices.

My favorite part of interning with MKC has been growing my professional network. Over the summer, interns visited MKC locations, as well as the KDA and Wheat Innovation Center. Although most days were great, I found that there are times when there is a lot of work to be done but also times when there may only be one or two projects.

These experiences described above are going to carry over into my professional career because I gained both writing and graphic design skills as well as professional knowledge. I would recommend this internship to a person invested in advocating for the agriculture industry through writing and social media. To learn about and apply for an internship, students need to contact MKC at career fairs or the MKC Coordinator of Talent and Industry Partnerships, Hilary Worcester.

Mid Kansas Cooperative – Braidyn Rucker

Posted on by Courtney Boman

Merriam-Webster defines the word Co-op as, a business or organization that is owned and operated by the people who work there or the people who use its services. I jumped into the true meaning of being part of the cooperative system this summer.

This was my third summer working for Mid Kansas Cooperative (MKC), but my first in the internship program. Based out of the Haven, Kansas location I spent most of my time under the direction of many leaders within one of the most progressive cooperative not only in the state but in the nation as well.

Going into the internship, I thought I knew exactly what to expect. The keyword here was thought. Throughout the summer I was pushed to think outside the box and to go beyond my comfort zone.  I was introduced to areas within agriculture I never dreamed of entering and now never want to leave.

Coming from an animal science background, I was nervous about spending time in agronomy. Having had very little experience working with crops and chemicals before, I was forced to ask questions, and communicate with my mentors often to make sure that the tasks were getting done correctly and in a timely manner.

I started out nervous, not knowing much about the basics within the area of agriculture in which I had been placed. I was however blessed to have mentors and leaders in the agronomy and agricultural industry who were patient, took the time to teach, and explained their knowledge and experiences to help me have an overall better understanding.

As I hit the midway mark of my internship, I continued on the agronomy path and strived to achieve as much information about crop production, the products that helped increase growth and yield, along with the skills needed to make the growing season successful. Along with these duties, I was honored with the opportunity to connect with other producers and employees within MKC and share my experiences through the company’s social media page.

Along with gaining a broader knowledge in agronomy, I increased my customer service skill set and worked in collaboration with the Groveland MKC intern Cody Seiler on a customer service survey.

This project was the base of the whole summer and was created by the two of us and presented to the CEO, the board of directors, and managers. This survey brought many trials but allowed us to interview many influential producers all over the south central and southern region of Kansas.

Although the project was challenging, we were able to bring information to the producer about the progressiveness of our cooperative system, while receiving feedback to bring back to the leaders that run the company.  Across the board, producers were excited to talk us, and about the cooperative system in which they trusted and used so often for their agricultural services.

I am so incredibly thankful to have been a part of the MKC intern program. It was wonderful to be a part of a company that takes such pride in taking care of their employees and ensures that each one is allowed the numerous opportunities, each day to grow in knowledge and be to be successful.

As I look forward to the future I am excited for the opportunities that a career in the cooperative system could bring. Working with producers in this great state is something I live for, a hope to continue to do after graduation. Overall, I was blessed for the internship in which I had this summer, the company I worked for and the individuals in which I met along the way, and for that, I will be forever thankful.

Mid Kansas Cooperative Internship- Calli Mathews

Posted on by chantelles

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.