Ag students get royal treatment

Seed com­pany flies job prospects to head­quar­ters for interviews

By ANDREA CHAFFIN

achaffin@wnewsj.com

Wilm­ing­ton Col­lege stu­dents chauf­feured to Indi­ana for job inter­views are, from the left, seniors Kara Pon­tones, LeAnn Topp and Kelsey Berger, and juniors Jenny Shaw and Katie Shaw.

WILMINGTON — Rock stars? A con­gres­sional entourage? Moguls of indus­try? No, the per­sons leav­ing Clin­ton County Air­port Nov. 9 by heli­copter were five Wilm­ing­ton Col­lege students.

Beck’s Hybrids flew the agri­cul­ture stu­dents to its head­quar­ters in Atlanta, Ind., for inter­views with the com­pany. They included seniors Kara Pon­tones, LeAnn Topp and Kelsey Berger, and juniors Jenny Shaw and Katie Shaw.

This marks the sec­ond batch of stu­dents they’ve trans­ported to Indi­ana for inter­views. The com­pany already hired one of the students.

Beck’s is the largest pri­vately held seed com­pany in the United States and employs a num­ber of WC agri­cul­ture alumni. Wilm­ing­ton College’s agri­cul­ture stu­dents are find­ing employ­ment at extra­or­di­nar­ily high per­cent­ages within sev­eral months after graduation.

Berger, one of the stu­dents selected for the exclu­sive inter­view, is a 21-year-old senior from Mil­ford. She is major­ing in agron­omy (the sci­ence of crops), and grad­u­ated in December.

The ride was “a lit­tle scary at first,” she said. “But once we got in, it was great — just a lit­tle cozy in there.”

After the group landed, they took a tour of Beck’s facil­i­ties, includ­ing grain houses and a new research build­ing. Each senior stu­dent spoke with three peo­ple dur­ing three sep­a­rate inter­views, and each junior stu­dent spoke to indi­vid­u­als hir­ing for internships.

After the com­pany pro­vided lunch, the group also had the oppor­tu­nity to pose ques­tions to Vice Pres­i­dent Scott Beck.

For Berger, the trip was some­what of a reunion. She worked with the com­pany her fresh­man year and cred­its Wilm­ing­ton College’s well-known agri­cul­ture pro­gram for the opportunities.

“I’m famil­iar with it and I love it,” she said. “I was low on the totem poll, but was taken in with equal­ity and had a great expe­ri­ence. When many other 17-year-olds in dif­fer­ent majors and at dif­fer­ent schools were going home or work­ing at Kroger, I was given the oppor­tu­nity to work some­where in my indus­try with valu­able experience.”

Berger has made it through the first round of inter­views, and is wait­ing to hear when the final round will take place for the full-time position.

“In ag, com­pa­nies are just as excited to have you as you are to be at the inter­view,” she said. “Ag is one of few indus­tries not hit by the reces­sion as dra­mat­i­cally — peo­ple are still hiring.”

“And they’re not just jobs, it’s jobs that I am actu­ally inter­ested in,” Berger con­tin­ued. “I’m not one of those grads that will have to set­tle. The expe­ri­ence you get at Wilm­ing­ton Col­lege makes you ready for expe­ri­ences in the job field.”

(Andrea Chaf­fin is a staff writer for the Staff Writer Wilm­ing­ton News Journal.)

Posted by Tina Murdock on Jan 10 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.