From Classroom to Workplace: The Farm Credit East Internship Experience

I spent the last 10 weeks interning at Farm Credit East and what I can tell you is the Farm Credit East internship experience is like no other. The employees strive to give each individual intern the best experience possible, providing countless opportunities to shadow positions, attend farm visits and work on meaningful projects, ultimately allowing us to make a real impact on the organization. This past summer, there were 15 interns participating alongside me in the 10-week program and following is a glimpse into the various aspects of the internship experience.

Impactful Project

Each intern is tasked with different projects to work on throughout the summer, ranging from financial services, credit, appraisal or other areas of the business. My project was focused on employee engagement, so I helped develop various tools and resources to keep the team informed and connected across Farm Credit East’s offices.

Summer Learning Series

The Summer Learning Series is about preparing the interns to join the workforce. It consists of a weekly touchpoint where an employee from each department across the association provides an overview of their role and describes their day-to-day. This gives the interns the opportunity to learn about each department while expanding our network to include a contact if that position is intriguing for us to shadow. It also includes helpful tips to prepare us for the workforce, such as how to be more physically or mentally organized or learning new ways of prioritizing tasks.

Farm Visits/Experience Trips

We quickly learned Farm Credit East is all about the personal relationships the team has with customers, so there are many opportunities to go on farm visits with appraisers, primary relationship managers or financial services team members. These visits often consist of tours of the farm and facility, a conversation with the farmer about their operation and, many times, a chance to try some of the products they produce.

These opportunities are incredibly informational. They expose interns to the different agricultural industries that Farm Credit East works with, as well as teaching us how to conduct conversations that are personal but still professional.

Additionally, there are group experience trips to give the interns an opportunity to get together and see parts of agriculture that may not be native to where each intern is located. For example, about half of the intern class went to Middleboro, Mass., where they toured an oyster farm and a cranberry bog. The other half visited the Saratoga race tracks in Saratoga, N.Y., to tour the facility and the horse farms involved.

Intern, Sunshine Friedline, commented, “My experience throughout the summer has been very enjoyable and educational. I've learned so much through farm visits and talking with staff in all departments.”

Job Shadowing

There are many opportunities to shadow any position we may be interested in within the association. Staff are more than happy to talk with us about what they do and how they got there. If a certain position is not in the office where we are stationed, there are opportunities to travel, or any staff member is just a call or chat away. These interactions are immensely insightful and allow us to learn more about specific positions of interest.

Here is a bit from Paisley Nudd, “It has been great to learn about many different positions within Farm Credit and see so many different aspects of agriculture!”

Pathways to Getting an Internship

There are many paths to gaining an internship at Farm Credit East. I found out about the internship through my professors at SUNY Cobleskill as well as friends who were interns in years past. Here are some other ways that my fellow interns have found the Farm Credit East internship.

 As you can see, there are many ways to find your path at Farm Credit East. If you have an interest in agriculture or finance, you should consider applying next year!

This is what Aidan Byrnes has to say about his overall intern experience, “this summer has been an eye-opening experience for me not only in terms of seeing how Farm Credit East operates within the Farm Credit System, but also through learning about the wide range of agricultural industries we support!” 

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. Interns are recruited from college campuses across the Northeast. For more information on the Farm Credit East internship program, visit our Careers Page.