Joining the Hoosier Ag Today team this week in Kansas City at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) Convention is a group of students from the Purdue University Ag Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT) club. Hoosier Ag Today caught up with one of the students who made the 490-mile trip from the campus in West Lafayette to Kansas City.
“This is what I’m really interested in doing and really passionate about, so I’m really, really excited to learn from other professionals,” says Marnie Schwartzkopf from Bartholomew County. She’s also a senior at Purdue with a focus on ag marketing. She’s not only involved in Ag Week at Purdue for 2025, but she also has several years of experience as an advocate for agriculture in her home community. She was a member of Hope FFA at Hauser High School. She also served as Miss Bartholomew County 2022 during the Bartholomew County 4-H Fair.
“I really want to see myself in an ag marketing and communications role where I get to work with people but also get to be creative. Those are my two passions,” she says. “I had an internship this past summer with BASF where I got to learn the nitty gritty, but I was at a desk a lot for the summer. But I love people and love talking. So, I’m really excited to find a career where I’m really passionate about advocating for the agriculture industry, but I’m also getting to use my skills, communication, and creativity and I can foster that gap between producer and consumer.”
She says she’s become very curious with the work we do here at Hoosier Ag Today.
“I’m kind of just really interested to learn about farm broadcasting as a whole,” she says. “I switched into ag communications after two years after taking ag education classes, so I’m kind of a sponge right now soaking up what all the ag communications and marketing has to offer. I’m just trying to figure out exactly what path I’m going to go down, so I’m really just excited to soak it all up and put it towards my career.”
With Marnie’s passion for agriculture and talent for communication, I asked her if she was here to try and steal my job away from me as a radio news reporter and farm broadcaster at Hoosier Ag Today?
“I am not, although that would be nice,” Marnie said with a laugh and smile.
CLICK BELOW to hear C.J. Miller’s radio news story with Purdue student Marnie Swartzkopf of Hope, Indiana, from the NAFB Convention in Kansas City.
