Students Earn Career Training at Farm Credit East

In honor of National Intern Day being celebrated on July 30, Farm Credit East recognizes the 16 college students the financial cooperative hosted this summer. With career aspirations in production agriculture, agribusiness, accounting, finance, communications or related fields, their efforts will leave a lasting impact on the association.

This year’s Farm Credit East interns include Kyra Balentine, SUNY Geneseo; Alexia Camarano, The Ohio State University; Catherine Colley, McGill University; Nickie Deschaine, Cornell University; Isabella Esposito, SUNY Morrisville; Matt Johnson, SUNY Oswego; Ethan Karches, Alfred University; Adam Li, University of Massachusetts; Molly McNeil, University of Connecticut; Marvin Morales, SUNY Albany; Yasmeen Mufleh, Rutgers University; Molly Smith, Skidmore College; Spencer Stadnicki, University of Maine; Casey Watson, Delaware Valley University; and two students from SUNY Cobleskill: Aislyn Weinstein and Devon Zapatka.

“As part of our commitment to the future of Northeast agriculture, commercial fishing and forest products, our internship program challenges the students and provides them with first-hand, real-world experience in their anticipated fields” said Briana Beebe, Farm Credit East Chief Operating Officer.

The internship program is offered to college juniors and seniors each summer. During the experience, students shadow employees in various roles to learn about different career opportunities at Farm Credit East. Each intern also completes projects that contribute valuable information for association initiatives and future planning.

“Interns take an active role within the organization, working on various projects that will benefit Farm Credit East well into the future,” said Abby Reen, Internship Coordinator. “We put together an interactive program that allows the interns to gain extensive exposure to many areas of agriculture and the many business services we provide at Farm Credit East, as well as considerable professional development to set them up for success.”

Interns are recruited from college campuses across the Northeast. On many of these campuses, Farm Credit East has established relationships with campus organizations such as the National FFA Organization, Farm Credit Fellows, Minorities in Agriculture Natural Resources Related Sciences (MANRRS) and 4-H, and actively seeks new partnerships to recruit a diverse set of interns. The organization also utilizes its network of customer and employee referrals to recruit interns and employees. For more information on the Farm Credit East internship program, please contact Shani Bennett at Shani.Bennett@farmcrediteast.com.