LSU College of Agriculture students complete summer internships

By Annabelle Lang

Participating in an internship is an excellent opportunity for students to gain practical experience related to their field of study or career fields and helps make students marketable with employers. Students in each of the college's eight majors participated in summer internships in Louisiana and across the country.

Many employers offer internships to assess potential job candidates and build a pipeline of talent for future hires. Despite setbacks caused by COVID-19, many students can still have in-person internship experiences, or their employers allowed them to participate in a virtual internship.

"We are excited to see LSU Ag students participating in competitive internships throughout the state and across the country. While COVID-19 has presented some challenges for students and employers, we are thrilled to see students like William Gaspard and many others completing virtual internships, which truly shows the resilience and evolution of the agriculture industry and how eager our students are to gain professional experience, even when on-site work is not possible," says Ashley Grant, manager of internships and student engagement.

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LSU College of Agriculture summer internship spotlights

Hannah Laville, a rising senior in natural resource ecology and management, is interning with the USDA-NRCS this summer in Clinton, LA. Her responsibilities include meeting with landowners to discuss land management goals, surveying land to identify resource concerns, and creating conservation plans to address those resource concerns.

William Gaspard, a rising senior in agricultural and extension education, is serving as the Cargill global corporate responsibility intern this summer. His role as an intern is to assist the corporate responsibility team in building and enhancing Cargill’s brand and reputation with internal and external stakeholders while aligning the company around one voice.

Amy Parrott, a rising senior in animal sciences, is spending her summer as an intern for JBS in Greely, Colorado. This summer she is working to help improve the capture rates on certain cuts of meat. She enjoys being on the fabrication floor where she produces different cuts of meat directly from the carcass.

Allison Spillman, a rising senior in agricultural and extension education, spending her summer in Midland, South Dakota at Cedar Breaks Mule Deer Ranch. This St. Francisville, LA native, is working as a fawn health technician monitoring mule deer fawn and herd health.

Mary Ponti, a rising senior in natural resource ecology and management, is interning with the Audubon Nature Institute this summer. As an intern, Mary assists keepers in caring for different exotic hoofstock including giraffe, okapi, and bongo, participates in field immobilizations, and is also working on a research project measuring habitat use of three of the species housed at the species survival center.