Hello fellow Buckeyes! My name is Mary Jenkins and I am a senior in ACEL studying Agricultural Communication with a minor in Spanish. This past summer, I had the opportunity to intern with the Ohio Pork Council (OPC) in New Albany, Ohio.

When searching for an internship last spring, I immediately went to Hire-A-Buckeye (now known as Handshake), where I had found my previous internship. The application and interview process were relatively easy and I had a great experience with both of them. Prior to this internship, I had some knowledge of the pork industry, as I  lived on a hog farm and showed market hogs for 10 years at the Champaign County Fair in Urbana, Ohio. However, there was still much to learn!

Throughout this summer, I primarily worked on communication projects, whether it be press releases, content for the quarterly publication Ohio Porkline, creating graphics, or designing a magazine insert. I loved getting to apply what I had learned in previous courses, like AGRCOMM 4310 or COMM 2221, and seeing how much of a difference there was between course work and projects for an organization. This internship made me even more confident that I had made the right decision to major in Agricultural Communication and eager to begin my career.

In addition to those responsibilities, I also spent a few days in Des Moines, Iowa, where I attended the National Pork Board intern training and the World Pork Expo. It was great to see how my work related to what was happening on a national level and to experience a global agricultural event. One of my final projects of the internship was spending time working at the 2018 Ohio State Fair, where I served as assistant manager of OPC’s food stands. My day-to-day responsibilities included training volunteers, counting money, or running supplies from one stand to another. Although not directly related to communication, there were still many transferable skills I gained from this experience, like time management, organization, and attention to detail.

All in all, my time as a communications intern with the Ohio Pork Council was a wonderful experience! I learned so much about communication and the pork industry that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to experience had it not been for this internship. If anyone is interested, I encourage them to apply next spring, or to keep their eye out for any internships that might interest them. You never know what you might gain from an experience outside of the classroom.