May – Wood County Fair Board

During the month of May, right at the beginning of my internship I was mostly working on getting familiar with the Facebook page and figuring out the different campaigns they wanted to start on for the coming months leading up to and after the Wood County Fair. The beginning of this process was super interesting because they never really had a plan or consistent content that was being posted daily. One of the board members on the advertising committee was usually the one posting about events and fair information and because she also has a full time job it was very difficult to keep up with the daily posts. This is part of the reason they created this internship.

I’ve had a lot of fun creating posts and putting together campaigns that brought more engagement and viewership to the Wood County Fair Facebook page. Just in the last month engagement was up 40%. I think a lot of that has to do with posting about more than just the events and activities that will be at the fair this year. One thing I made sure to start posting was updates on different events that may be happening on the fairgrounds throughout the year. Just in the summer alone there have been flea markets, open class swine shows, craft fairs, Relay 4 Life and many more. This brought individuals to our page that may not be involved in the fair but live in the area and like to know about different events that are happening during the year. We were able to tap into that new group of people that we weren’t able to before.

I will be sure to share those posts in a little bit.

Busy few weeks – Wood County Fair Board

Hello all! I am super excited for all of you to follow along with me throughout the next few months leading up to the fair. This internship started about a month ago, but between moving back home for the summer and staying busy with the fair board I haven’t had the opportunity to start up this summer’s blog post. We are going to start now!

Wood County Fair Board

This summer I will be working with the Wood County Fair Board as an Agriculture Communications Intern. I will be helping to manage the Fair Board’s Facebook page and assisting in advertisement and sponsor relations for the upcoming fair this summer. I am super excited for the opportunity to show everyone what my hometown fair has to offer for all those attending!

Feel free to follow on Facebook @WoodCountyFair and follow along for a summer full of exciting opportunities and a busy fair week August 1st-8th!

Weeks 5 & 6 – AgCredit

These two weeks have been very short because of the memorial day weekend but filled with learning and working on projects!

During week 5, I spent all my time finishing up the Marketing prospects project for the operations department. I was able to gather all the information needed for the branches in the counties serviced by AgCredit so they are better able to serve their members. I also continued to work on going through the past picnic and Christmas party files and finished up putting all the information into an Excel spreadsheet for the marketing department to utilize when planning the next event. I finished off week five attending the employee picnic. This was a great opportunity for me to talk with other employees at different branches and create relationships with those that I might not have had the opportunity to.

Week 6 (this week) I have worked on a bunch of research for the HR department regarding Employer branding. They really want to revamp their strategies and find some new ones that they can implement to share their name and culture with more potential job candidates. A lot of this is marketing based so I have been using the skills learned in many of the classes I have taken about communicating ideas and opinions to come up with potential strategies that would reach more people in the most efficient way.

On Tuesday all the interns visited the Kenton Branch for the whole day to talk about the different operations across the association and what each job position is in charge of. There was a lot of information given to us, but it was super exciting to see what a typical day in a branch office would look like because I am not working in the same environment as an administrative intern. Then on Wednesday (today) I came back to the office and worked on more employer branding research. I am really looking forward to how this project is going to turn out and what opportunities will arise for the HR department when looking to hire.

I will see you all next week!

Week 4 – AgCredit

Week 4 was a very busy week!

I started to finalize the Marketing Prospects project that I have been working on for a couple of weeks now. Only one more county to research and this project will be complete!!

Also during this week I worked on a couple of the projects given to me by the marketing department. Wednesday I created ten different posts for the AgCredit Facebook and Instagram pages that will be posted weekly during the month of June to celebrate National Dairy Month and National Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Month. In last weeks post I mentioned that I was super excited to have the opportunity to create original posts for the company and look forward to sharing them with all of you as they get posted over the next month. For this project I used a lot of the content learned in the Intro to Agricultural Communications Class I took in the Fall of 2020. This class didn’t touch on creating social media posts specifically, however when creating my portfolio site for the class I learned a lot about layouts what looks good to the eyes of the reader.

This past spring (2021) I also took the Communicating Ag Issues class with Leah Curtis. This class referenced the information given in the book “Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath, which taught me a lot about getting my ideas across and getting the information out there so the audience has it in a short amount of time. I kept this idea in mind while creating these posts because you have less than a second to get the attention of the reader as they scroll through their feed. I made my posts informational but also straight to the point because of this ideal.

Additionally from the marketing department, this week I have been going through a bunch of event planning files for their annual Employee Appreciation Picnic and Christmas Party. All the information from these files is getting put into an excel spreadsheet for easy access. There is a lot that goes into the planning of these events and this will allow them to have easier access to the information.

Can’t wait to see what is in store for me on Tuesday! Happy Memorial Day Weekend, see you next week!

Week 3 – AgCredit

This week I was finally falling into a rhythm of working on projects and working with others around the office.

The number of new projects being given to me this week was a lot less, so I had the chance to really get to work on the Marketing Prospects and Employer Branding Projects that I was really looking forward to. I really cracked down on the marketing prospects project and hope to finish it up in the upcoming week. This project has taught me a lot about what AgCredit does for its members and how they are looking to expand and service more farmers and homeowners in the counties they are located in. While I really wanted to try and work on both projects my main focus for this last week has been the prospects project.

Later on in the week I also had the opportunity to meet with the marketing department and get a list of things they need accomplished this summer. The main one being sorting through the past files from company picnics and Christmas parties to have a better idea of what was done in the past and what they could do in the next couple years. Another project that I am super excited about is creating content for their social media pages over the next month. June is National Dairy and Fresh Fruits and Vegetables month and they would like to have posts weekly that highlight this event that so many of their customers can relate to. I look forward to using the skills learned in class for this project and will be sure to share those here as they get posted to social media!

This internship continues to open new avenues of thought and ideas that I had never had the opportunity to work with. As an admin intern I work with all departments of the administrative office; because of this I get a unique look at their operations from the inside out. This is probably one of my favorite parts of this internship so far!

See you next week!!

Week 2 – AgCredit

I am a little late on last weeks post, but week 2 is now over and week three is looking even better than the last.

This week was super busy but also super exciting! I started working on a marketing prospects project. For this project I am researching our competitors in all the counties serviced by AgCredit and looking to see how we can change our tactics and become more competitive with these other financial service companies. This project is teaching me a lot about loans and mortgages and the many different factors that come into play when working to provide a loan to a customer. I am looking forward to the opportunities this project if going to open for me and learning more about the legal side of ag lending.

One thing that I really liked about this week was, a lot of the projects that I am working on or will be working on this summer allow me to learn the ins and outs of ag lending with a hands on approach. I am looking through mortgages, organizing W-9s for accounting, or going to county fairs and representing the company. While I might not be working directly with the customers I am getting a behind the scenes look at what goes into the services provided by AgCredit and how they are helping farmers.

See you next week!!

Week 1 – AgCredit

During this week I had the opportunity to meet with all personnel within the office. I talked with members of the executive leadership team, the HR, marketing, account, and legal departments about possible project that I could be working on for them over the course of my time here.

We started the week with an Intern Orientation at the administrative office in Fostoria, Ohio. I met with the four other interns who will be working in different departments and branches all over northwest Ohio. They gave us some great background about the company, what they do, their long term goals, and the culture they want to share with its members and employees. We also met with the Executive Leadership Team and got a tour of the rest of the office.

On my first day in the office I completed a lot of trainings related to the operations of the company and also found some that were very beneficial to my professional development. I also met with my supervisor to discuss the goal of my internship and get an idea of the different projects I will be working on for all the administrative departments in this office.

This week I started working on my first project for the Human Resources department. They really wanted to start focusing on their employer branding and promoting the company to potential job candidates. I’ve done some research about what employer branding is and what other companies are doing to promote their workplace. I am really looking forward to this project because it has a lot of marketing attached to it. This project will allow me to focus on social media and other marketing avenues that are essential in communicating the culture and values of the company to prospects.

Later on in the week I also met with the accounting department to discuss some projects they would like me to start working on. The project that I’m currently working on is just going through the different vendors and separating out their W-9 forms for later use. They also talked about me helping to transition vendors to electronic payments. A lot of this would be calling vendors and getting information from them that will allow payments to be transferred electronically.

One of the biggest things I like about this internship just after the first week is the variety of information and departments that I will be working with. In agriculture there are oftentimes many parts of the industry that many do not see. This internship allows me the opportunity to work behind the scenes and get a first hand look at how this company is working to help grow agriculture and rural communities.

Overall, I am super excited for the next 14 weeks and can’t wait for what is to come!

Ag Credit Admin Internship

I am super excited to announce that I have started an internship at Ag Credit, ACA in Fostoria, Ohio as a Admin Intern. I am looking forward to this summer and having the opportunity to work with the company’s administrative teams.

Follow along here for weekly posts over the next few months and see what projects and opportunities I get myself into!!