By: Sydney Downham
My name is Sydney Downham. I am a junior majoring in Animal Science and Business Management, in the College of Agricultural Sciences. I’ve always had an animal agriculture background through 4-H, FFA, and school. However, I think it is important to be well rounded and know as much about the industry as possible. For this reason, I have made an effort to expand my horizons beyond animal production and learn about other parts of agriculture. These efforts led me to my current internship with the Student Farm at Penn State where the focus is vegetable production for the Penn State community.
The first few weeks of the internship were focused on readings and weekly group discussions. These readings, chosen by the farm’s coordinator Leslie Pillen, have proven to be very helpful. The books discussed the details of starting vegetable farms, producing, record keeping, and establishing a CSA. As somebody with limited experience with crop production, I found this to be an essential part of the internship. The readings really helped prepare me for some of the tasks I will be doing throughout the growing season.
Interns planting seeds in the greenhouse. Photo: Katie Leite
So far, my experience as an intern for the Student Farm has been an exciting new challenge. Due to some unfortunate weather, I haven’t been able to spend too much time on the farm itself, however, I have worked on some fun projects to get ready for this growing season. We have built and painted new shelves and a desk for organizing and storing tools and supplies. We also led the Student Farm Club in starting seeds and putting them into the greenhouse.
Cleaned and organized shelves in the greenhouse. Photo: Syndey Downham
I really enjoy getting to water these plants a few times a week in the greenhouse and watch them start to grow. I’ve taken on the task of organizing a Student Farm Handbook for future interns to learn about how the farm works which I think will be really helpful. I most look forward to giving tours of the farm and working with the volunteers. I think that community involvement and public education are a very important part of agriculture and enjoy helping others learn where their food comes from. I have really been enjoying interning with the Student Farm and I’m excited to continue to do so over the summer and throughout the 2017 growing season.