Illinois State Universities Plant the Seeds for Future Agriculturalists

Veronica Laurent grew up in a Chicago suburb with little exposure to agriculture. At least, that’s what she thought.

“I didn’t realize there was any agriculture near us,” says Laurent, a recent horticulture graduate from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. “There are so many different facets of agriculture, and it’s everywhere. Even in a city, it’s still there, no matter where you go.”

Laurent works at Chicago Botanic Garden as an assistant horticulturist for the Elizabeth Hubert Malott Japanese Garden. A high school environmental science class confirmed her love for plants, so she initially went with a plant biology major. In college, she quickly realized she preferred more hands-on work and switched to horticulture. An internship at the Chicago Botanic Garden led to her current position.

“I love answering questions at work whenever people ask how I got into this position,” Laurent says.

She says it was eye-opening to work alongside students from traditional agriculture backgrounds during college. She hopes students from her home area can have a similar experience.

“I think a great thing high schools can do is take field trips – going to forest preserves or a farm to see animals in person,” she says. “Giving students that opportunity to have a hands-on experience and talk to a farmer or a scientist or anyone involved in agriculture will help open their eyes to that career possibility.”

See more: Illinois Community Colleges Prepare Students for Successful Agriculture Careers

Starting on the Ground Level

An environmental science class also caught the attention of Kevin Glauber, commercial sustainability lead with Bunge, an American agribusiness and food company. He, too, grew up in a Chicago suburb. While he knew he wanted to attend the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he didn’t have a clear direction.

“Looking through majors, I fell into this agricultural and consumer economics major that I felt would give me opportunities to learn more about environmental science,” Glauber says.

Deans and professors in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences offered a personal and close-knit community where Glauber felt like he fit. An internship with the Illinois Green Business Association introduced him to sustainability, but Glauber wanted something that felt more tangible. He found that the following summer, interning as a crop scout with Bunge.

“I learned production agriculture at the ground level, going into fields, collecting data on yield projections and talking to farmers,” he says. “Understanding what they were seeing in their crops and reporting back, and understanding how a research team identifies what a potential yield can be and how that impacts the whole global market.”

That experience led to his current position, although he worked in different areas of the company across the United States along the way.

“I work with origination teams that are at our soybean processing facilities in the U.S. and help manage the growth of our direct farmer origination,” he says. “It’s a middle point between the origination of grains and the sustainability initiatives, whether those be privately initiated or government-required sustainability initiatives.”

It’s a heavy agriculture focus for a guy from the suburbs. But Glauber says the agriculture industry is a welcoming place with many opportunities to learn. He said the genuine connections he has made with people who grew up differently than he did have been some of the most interesting parts of his journey so far.

“If you didn’t grow up with agriculture, you might be the one to reach across to find that common ground and get out of your comfort zone,” Glauber says. “That’s what worked for me.”

Careers in Agriculture series: This is the fourth of a four-part Careers in Agriculture series. Check out the third part here: Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences Prioritizes Ag Education.