Hello! My name is Kaity Spangler and I am a 2018 Agricultural Leadership and Science Education graduate. While I did graduate with a teaching degree, I decided to take a different route and work for the Illinois Farm Bureau in Bloomington, Illinois. In my current role as the MSPR Program Specialist, I have the opportunity to work with 4-H, the FFA, and Collegiate Farm Bureau programs across the state. The ALEC program at U of I prepared me for this job in so many ways.

In most of my professional career, I have been focused on improving crop production by understanding the impacts of spatial and temporal variability at the field level. Taking these variations into consideration, instead of using just the averages, is the basis of precision agriculture. Most of the tools developed to implement the recommendations resulting from this strategy of crop management are focused on larger producers. There is still low adoption by smallholder farmers.

For my junior year summer, I had the opportunity to intern at the Union Square Hospitality Group, a company that I have admired for its vision of hospitality. I was hired as a restaurant operations intern at the Union Square Cafe, the company’s flagship restaurant. This 10-week internship allowed me to understand the entire operation of a fine-dining restaurant. I started off as a kitchen server which allowed to interact with the chefs and guests and more importantly,  understand the flow of the restaurant.

In my preparation for becoming an occupational therapist, I have involved myself with many different experiences. I worked on the STRONGKids2 research team with Dr. McBride, developing operational definitions for research. I helped write our research paper and created our poster for the SRCD 2019 Conference. HDFS professors all express a strong desire to see us succeed; this was made clear to me when Dr. McBride offered me these great experiences and wrote me a strong letter of recommendation for OT school. 

As the end of the calendar year approaches, there is typically an increase in mail and email from a variety of non-profit organizations seeking contributions. You might be asking yourself if and how your philanthropic contribution can create an impact. Often, it’s the collective of annual contributions that provides critical support for a mission. This is certainly the case with the more than 1,300 gifts made each year to the College of ACES Annual Fund. Gifts of all sizes to the ACES Annual Fund are imperative to fulfilling our land-grant mission.

Following the close of my freshman year, I was questioning my purpose at this university. I had little direction with respect to my studies, and was having trouble pinpointing my passion. After significant thought and intense debate, I made the decision not to return to the university for the upcoming fall semester.

With the fall semester of school at the University of Illinois now in full swing, college students from all majors and cities, with many different talents can be seen walking, talking, and exploring campus. Despite the many activities going on throughout the heart of the university, many students are unaware of the rich, exciting history that has affected their daily lives.

I have wanted to travel to Africa since I was 14 years old, and this past winter break I was able to finally fulfill that dream. I traveled to Sierra Leone, where I, and nine other students, did work with the World Fish Foundation, educating farmers about how to grow their fisheries and supply better fish to customers and their families. This tied in with the nutritional aspect of the trip, which was focused on educating farmers and villagers about the importance of adequate protein intake.

When I joined HDFS, I wanted to explore all that the major had to offer, especially in terms of working with faculty. I read up on our professors, their research, and the opportunities they presented to undergraduates. After reaching out to some of these professors, I was lucky enough to join the Healthy Experiences Across Relationship Transitions (HEART) Lab with Dr. Brian Ogolsky.

I had the amazing opportunity to spend four and a half months in the Netherlands this past spring semester. I studied at Wageningen University, a school dedicated to educating its students about environmental health and sustainability. I decided to study abroad at this university because it is a prestigious school in the field of environmental science, which also happens to be my major. Throughout my adventure, I had the opportunity to grow both as an individual and as a professional in my career field.