A major component of each agribusiness student's educational plan is an internship at a business related to the student's major. Students complete 11 credits (528 hours) of supervised internship, typically during the summer between the 1st and 2nd year of education at South Central College. Students work with agribusiness faculty and staff in arranging a position that provides work and experiences that they will encounter in their future professional careers. The internship provides the students with an opportunity to apply skills learned in the classroom.
Internships are available at agricultural cooperatives, crop and livestock farms, agricultural implement dealers, vegetable canning companies, ag research facilities, agricultural lenders, and other agribusinesses.
For many agronomy students, crop scouting is a part of their internships. Checking plant population, plant vigor, plant emergence and plant health are important information collected by the interns. Students that choose to complete an internship at an agricultural research facility help researchers that develop and evaluate new seed varieties and hybrids. The development and evaluation of new seed varieties and hybrids is an exciting industry to be a part of.
Southern Minnesota is home to a strong livestock industry. Students who have a livestock interest are able to complete an internship at livestock facilities including, swine, dairy, beef, equine and sheep farms.
The use of technology is an important part of many of the internships and students interested in precision agriculture and service technology can work directly with farm equipment and GPS software during their internship.
Students interning in the service and management field, have the opportunity to work and gain experience providing producers with high value agricultural services.
The primary purpose of a student’s internships is to educate the students about work in the agricultural industry. Students have to learn directly from industry experts in a work setting, giving them the skills to be successful professionals after graduation. Many students have obtained internships that have led to offers of employment after they have completed their internships.
