Fair Oaks Pig Adventure, Belstra Milling have announced a unique internship opportunity exclusively for participants in the Animal Agriculture Alliance’s College Aggies Online Scholarship Program (CAO). The Alliance’s CAO program helps college students, with an interest in agriculture, become confident, positive and proactive communicators for the entire industry.
Since the CAO competition began on September 8, 2014 more than 1,043 college students have been competing individually and/or as part of collegiate agriculture clubs by completing a variety of tasks and assignments meant to help them interact on-campus, online (using social media) and in their communities. Now, thanks to a partnership with Fair Oaks Farms Pig Adventure and Belstra Milling, all current CAO participants will have the opportunity to apply for a Communications and Advocacy Internship to be completed during the summer of 2015 on the Fair Oaks Farms Indiana complex.
“We are very excited to be a part of CAO 2014,” said Leah Lentini, Corporate Liaison, Belstra Milling Company. “We can’t wait to see all of the resume’s that come in and look forward to picking some of you to interview.”
This internship, which will be a brand new position available only to the extremely passionate and dedicated 2014 CAO participants, will test the students’ newly acquired communications and consumer engagement skills that they’ve honed throughout this fall’s 11-week program.
“This is an incredible opportunity for our CAO students to really put their skills to the test,” said Alliance President and CEO Kay Johnson Smith. “This has always been our hope for the CAO Program—that students who participate will go out and use the knowledge they’ve gained to engage with consumers and do their part to tell agriculture’s story.”
In addition to this unique internship opportunity, CAO participants also compete for recognition and scholarships. Several weeks ago, the Alliance announced it would be doubling individual scholarship amounts with the first prize award increasing from $2,500.00 to a $5,000.00 scholarship this year. Similarly, the second and third prizes for the individual competition will increase to $2,500.00 and $1,000.00, respectively. Additionally, the Alliance will be adding a scholarship award in the amount of $1,000.00 for the third place club.
After week six, the three top-placing individuals hail from Montana State University, Oklahoma State University and New Mexico State University, though competition is fierce and the leader-board standings have varied greatly week to week. The final points will be tallied in late November and the winners announced December 2nd.
To learn more about the competition and to see a complete list of all the 2014 program sponsors, please visit the Alliance website.