My time as an undergraduate student in the Crop Sciences has helped guide me to seek opportunities in which I never considered before. I come from a suburban background with absolutely zero knowledge about agriculture and now I am about to pursue a Master’s degree in Agronomy and study weed science. The knowledge I gained in my coursework was incredibly helpful in preparing me for my future and lead me to work as a Research Assistant for a weed ecology lab throughout my undergraduate career.

I remembered touring the FSHN pilot plant my freshman year during a class and thought it was the coolest place ever. I applied for an internship during my freshman year and soon became employed. I had a lot of experience in cooking, cleaning, and using tools. At the pilot plant, I learned how we process foods from the student sustainable farm into ingredients that the dining halls on-campus use. For example, we processed tomatoes from the farm into pizza sauce for the dining halls. There is a lot of teamwork since we are always working with our peers and this develops great friendships.

As a kid growing up in Illinois, I was heavily involved in 4-H for 11 years, taking projects like swine, horticulture, photography, and cooking. I think my favorite part of 4-H was not showing projects at the fair, or monthly club meetings, or the skills it taught me, or even working with livestock, although I really enjoyed all those things. My favorite part of 4-H was the community. That may sound cheesy, but it’s so true. One of my favorite days of the whole year was fair clean-up day when everyone came together after the fair to scoop out the barns and clean up the buildings.

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.