Students Earn Career Training at Farm Credit East

August 11, 2020

Farm Credit East was pleased to host 17 college students with career aspirations in production agriculture, agribusiness, accounting, finance or similar fields as part of its annual summer internship program. “The continuation of our internship program despite COVID-19 limitations exemplifies our commitment to the future of Northeast agriculture, commercial fishing and forest products,” said Mike Reynolds, Farm Credit East CEO. “The program transitioned to a virtual format this year but still challenged the students and provided them with first-hand, real world experience in their anticipated fields.”

This year’s Farm Credit East interns include four students attending Cornell University: Damian Hill, Kylie Lehr, Clara Stillwell and Gabrielle Tarbox; three SUNY Cobleskill students: Seth Browe, Chris Howell and Cassie Menendez; along with Parfait Bizimana, Niagara University; Nicholas Cotugno, Penn State University; Trevor Fil, Southern New Hampshire University; Gabrielle Krause, Western New England University; Amber Lewis, Alfred State College; Lydia Marteney, Hartwick College; Prince Phil-Jones, SUNY Oswego; Daniel Ripley, SUNY Morrisville; William Ryan, University of Massachusetts; and Alyson Schneider, University of Connecticut.

The internship program is offered to college juniors each summer. During the experience, students have an inside look into Farm Credit East and shadow employees in various roles to learn about different career opportunities. Each intern also completes a major project which contributes valuable information for association initiatives and future planning.

“Due to the restrictions we faced with COVID-19, the landscape of our internship program had to be adjusted considerably,” said recruiting manager Max Glebocki. “Due to restrictions on in-person farm visits and events, students instead participated in various virtual events, meetings and trainings, including virtual farm visits.

“Collectively, our team was able to put together an interactive program that still allowed the interns to gain extensive exposure to many areas of agriculture as well as the many services we provide here at Farm Credit East,” Glebocki added.

Interns are recruited from college campuses across the Northeast. On many of these campuses, Farm Credit East has established relationships with campus organizations such as Future Farmers of America (FFA), Farm Credit Fellows and 4-H and is actively seeking new partnerships to recruit a diverse set of interns. The organization also utilizes its network of customer and employee referrals to recruit interns and employees. For more information on the Farm Credit East internship program, please contact Max Glebocki at Maximilian.Glebocki@FarmCreditEast.com.