I am from a small farm west of Lebanon, Kansas. Fun fact, Lebanon is the geographical center of the continental United States! My father works as a manager in a local feedlot and my mother works as a quality assurance directer in the hospital at Smith Center, Kansas. My one and only sibling, just recently graduated from K-State with a degree in Agriculture Education. She is starting as an Ag teacher in the fall. My family is pictured above and I am on the right. I attended high school in Smith Center, Kansas and was heavily involved in FFA and FCCLA. I am now a sophomore at Kansas State University majoring in Horticulture with an emphasis in Production and a minor in Agribusiness. At K-State, I am involved in Horticulture Club and serve as the Public Relations Officer. I fell in love with horticulture at a very young age. My family has always had a family garden and throughout the years, I have slowly gained more and more responsibilities in the garden. Now, I am the main gardener. One thing I am extremely excited about this year for our garden is the newly constructed greenhouse (pictured above) that just got finished a few days ago. I have spent every moment I can out in the greenhouse since it has been up and now I am even more in love with horticulture. When I am not gardening or being a plant nerd, I love to go hunting and fishing with my father and boyfriend, play with my cat (pictured above), or just spend time outdoors working or enjoying the view. With my degree, I hope to be able to return home and purchase the greenhouses in Smith Center. Through my business I want to be able to share my passion for horticulture as well as create a learning environment for my customers. I would also love to create an all year round farmers market from vegetables I would produce in a greenhouse, as well as sell other local products.
Through this internship, I will be able to connect with people in the surrounding area and have the opportunity to look deeper into the already existing local food producers and distributers, as well as determine what type of demand there is for locally grown foods. The knowledge that I will gain from this internship is will help me in making decisions for my future business. It will also help me create a foundation for something that I can continue to work on throughout the years, and hopefully set a local growing cooperative into motion. I am excited to get started working on this internship, as well as share more information and facts about what is happening with my internship as well!
