Transferring to ACE

Posted on October 25, 2013 by tboian@illinois.edu

My name is Courtney Poffenberger and I am a senior in ACE with a concentration of Finance in Agribusiness, but this is not where I pictured myself at the beginning of college. I came into the University of Illinois as an Education major and at that point in time I thought I had my whole life planned out. I imagined graduating with a degree from the College of Education and then subsequently finding a job that I would have until retirement, but after my first semester, I knew that wasn’t the life I wanted. I started to explore other options, but I had no idea there were so many possibilities offered on this campus.

I come from a farm background, and hearing about the College of ACES caught my attention. After reading about the ACE major and the wide variety of classes that were offered, I knew that I could find something to meet my interests. Through further research and thinking about the future, I knew that ACE was the place I wanted to be. The transition went well with the help of the ACE advisors and staff and after my first semester in the major, I knew that I had made the right decision in transferring. I enjoyed the classes and I especially liked hearing about the job opportunities that were available for after graduation.

Looking back, I would not have changed anything. Transferring to ACE was one of the best things that I could have done in my college career. From the helpful ACE staff, to the array of courses, anyone can prosper in ACE. I would not have gotten through the process without the help of advisors and they are still helpful as I approach graduation and try to answer any questions that I may have. The courses throughout ACE have also helped me decide the path I want to take after graduation. I also know that I can take the information I have learned and use it in my future career and it helps when you are learning from some of the top professors in their field. This major also offers a variety of clubs and organizations to try and help students get involved and network. In my mind, I could not have made a better decision and I could not be more grateful for all of the experiences that I have been able to have while in ACE.

Help with your Future

Posted on October 25, 2013 by tboian@illinois.edu

My name is Blake Larsen, and I am a junior in ACE with a concentration in Financial Planning. Going into college I had no idea what Financial Planning was, what I could do with it, and what courses I had to take to get my degree. The ACE department helped me figure this out from day one. One of the first classes that helped me was ACES 101, which helped me plan out a schedule for the next four years. By having this I was able to have a basic feel for what I would be taking over the next couple of years and when I should take them by. I then learned what Financial Planning was through classes such as ACE 100 and ACE 240. In ACE 240 I started learning a lot about personal investing, and I thought it was very useful for not only my career but my life as a whole because I can now make better investing choices. One of my most useful classes I have ever taken however, was ACE 398 my sophomore year. In this class professionals from the field came in and talked about what options I had with my degree. I learned a lot about myself in that class and discovered some of the things I like and some things I don’t like about Financial Planning. With all this help from my classes I now have a sense of direction of where my life could be heading.

A Small College in a Big 10 Environment!

Posted on October 15, 2013 by tboian@illinois.edu

“My name is Aaron Wall; I’m currently a Junior, majoring in Agricultural and Consumer Economics within the College of ACES. While I am still not exactly sure what I want to do with my major, I know that there will be plenty of post-graduation opportunities available to me.

I feel that one of the most appealing aspects about the College of ACES (and there are a ton!) is how much the faculty really cares about you, and prepares you for ‘the real world’. I have met in-person with my advisor, and she sends follow up emails to check on me throughout the year. With a ratio of 18 to 1 of students to professors in the classroom, you really get a personalized experience if you want it. It is a culture where even though there are 40,000 students on campus, you have a network of people who are willing to help you work to succeed.

Another great aspect about the College of ACES is that the classes are not only there to fulfill college credit. You are immersed into the field of your major, whether it be trips to other countries or (in my case), the opportunity to take ACE 398: Issues in Agribusiness Markets & Mgmt, where I can have a streamlined learning experience about how to stand out in the agribusiness field.

The College of ACES is a great place to learn and grow. With opportunities like the ACES Thanking Drive, ACES Career Fair, ACE Ambassadors, ACE Club, to name a few, there are plenty of opportunities to advance yourself personally, socially, and professionally. I am excited to see what the next year of school will bring!”

– Aaron Wall

From Disney World to Wall Street — ACE gives you it all!

Posted on October 7, 2013 by tboian@illinois.edu

By ACE Ambassador Michael Courtney.

My name is Michael Courtney and I am a senior in the college of ACES studying Consumer Economics and Finance with a minor in Leadership Studies.

When I was deciding where to attend college, I had a number of criteria to sort through. Did I want to go to a big school or a small school? What did I want to study? Where did I want to work when I graduated? All of these questions came to mind when I was choosing a school, and ACES was the result.

ACES is a hidden gem at the University of Illinois. It is a small school atmosphere nestled in a Big Ten campus. I know almost all of my professors and advisors by name and they know me. Only in ACES can we have class sizes with a ratio of 18 students to 1 instructor, while you are on campus with nearly 40,000 other undergraduate students.

As far as what I wanted to study, I knew I had an interest in business, and I felt that ACE provided a nice mixture of business as well as agricultural education. I was really drawn to ACES when I saw the list of companies that recruits from the college. Seed companies, Ag. Companies, Rail Roads, Manufactories, Banks and Financial Institutions, Government agencies and so many more. It seemed like I could go to into school, narrow down my focus, and then choose my future based on my discovered interests.

I knew that interning while at school would be very important and so I began to look for opportunities. I talked to friends, faculty, recent grads, my faculty mentor, and the hard work paid off.

In the spring semester of my sophomore year, I moved to Orlando, Florida for eight months to complete the Disney College Program. In this internship I lived and worked at the flagship resort of the Walt Disney Company serving as a ferryboat captain at Epcot. I learned customer service, passenger logistics, gained emergency response training, as well as served as a spanish translator for spanish speaking guests. Besides this, I took classes through the Disney Institute, and completed a term paper while working with a faculty sponsor at the University of Illinois.

This was a fantastic experience and something that employers and interviewers still ask about today.

I had such a great experience on my first internship, that I immediately began looking for another for the end of my Junior year. I applied, interviewed, went to career fairs, and by the end of the school year, had job offers from the Federal Reserve Bank, Target Corporation, and J.P.Morgan Chase.

I took a job with J.P. Morgan in the corporate and investment bank working on an energy tax equity portfolio. My main role was to help manage assets that the bank had invested in, which were predominantly wind farms. My job was to track production and revenue data, look for production delays, forecast wind turbine down time as well as interact with our clients to troubleshoot issues and answer questions. During the summer I also worked on a couple of special projects which included analyzing buy out offer on one of our farms, as well as redesigning and testing an internal J.P.Morgan database.

I had a fantastic experience working for J.P. Morgan. It was a great internship and a great real world work experience, as I was able to use what I had learned in class and apply it to my work.

I am very grateful to the college of ACES for the opportunities they have afforded me during my college career and internships. I am fortunate to have had such outstanding professors, advisors, TA’s who made me as successful as I was. This small college feel at the University was exactly what I was looking for in a college.

Professional Development — NAMA Networking for ACE students

Posted on October 7, 2013 by tboian@illinois.edu

By Kelly Fornoff, ACE Ambassador

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) fall conference in St. Louis, MO with two fellow ACES students. At the conference, we learned more about what is new in the agri-marketing industry. We also listened to several speakers, but in particular there were two keynote speakers who motivated us to be more successful in our future careers.

Several points that the two speakers made were:

Set your own moon goals and work hard to achieve them.

Definition of a moon goal: A stretch; a difficult and transformational goal that you have set for yourself.

Don’t wait for your ship to come in, swim out to meet it.
Recognize that the future is not a place you are going, but a place you will create.

The faculty in the ACE Department push you to achieve your own “moon goals.” Through experiential learning and other opportunities in ACE, students are able to create their own futures while the faculty provide the resources that are needed to have a successful career. The best opportunities aren’t going to come knocking on your doorstep. You have to be willing to reach out to them and take advantage of the resources and opportunities that you are presented with.

Financial Planning — Endless Options for an ACE Student

Posted on September 30, 2013 by tboian@illinois.edu

Written by ACE Ambassador Erin Willson:

My name is Erin and I am a junior in ACE with a concentration in Financial Planning. Currently, I am not really sure what direction I want to take with financial planning. It seems like there are so many different options from financial advisor to broker to estate planning. Luckily, I have the opportunity to learn more about each one of those options thanks to ACE 398 (Contemporary Financial Planning). It is a course offered through the College of ACE that features a few different speakers each week in the financial planning field. Some have been more recent college graduates who are already successful in their career yet still able to offer advice and relate to those of us starting out. Other speakers have been in the business for thirty years, and they able to share their experiences and what they have learned over time. In the course we are also getting feedback on our resumes, tips for attending career fairs and hearing about potential networking opportunities that can help us down the line. So while I still have not narrowed down specifically what my future career will be, I have a much greater sense of my options, and I am slowly but surely exploring each one.

Great News for Soon-to-Be ACE Grads!

Posted on September 30, 2013 by tboian@illinois.edu

A Blog by ACE Ambassador Jaclyn Hendricks:

Although unemployment rates are troublesome to many soon to be college graduates, those who study agriculture are in for some relief. In a May 2013 study conducted by Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, those who studied agriculture have one of the lowest recent college graduate unemployment rates. Those who are experienced college graduates majoring in agriculture can expect even lower unemployment rates at around 3 percent. In Agriculture and Consumer Economics, soon to be graduates can rely on exposure to different concepts learned during their four years of undergrad to help secure a job upon receiving a degree.

http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/HardTimes.2013.2.pdf

Final Video Projects from ACE 199 Posted!

Posted on May 2, 2013 by ACE Experiential

We are excited to premier our final video projects from the March 16th – 22nd spring break study tour to northern California. This experience proved to be an excellent opportunity for the students, and we are grateful for our hosts in California who opened up their offices, homes, and fields to University of Illinois College of ACES students and their research.

Organic Foods
By Blake Croegaert, Jahna Goldman, Amelia Martens, & Amy Yanow
April 30, 2013

The Future of Water in California
By Patrick Boland, Preston Brown, Lucas Frye, & John Schuler
April 30, 2013

The Local Foods Movement
By Elise Ellinger, Jacqui Hendricks, Carlee Silver, & Colby Silvert
April 30, 2013

Preserving the Environment for the Future
By Cathryn Ayers, Angela Hamann, Katherine McLachlan, & Lory Washington
April 30, 2013

The Impacts of GMO Labeling
By Erick Garcia, Alan Gong, Kelley Fornoff, & Grace Simpson
April 30, 2013

Wine and Cheese: An Appropriate Ending to a Week in California

Posted on March 23, 2013 by ACE Experiential

By Cathryn Ayers, Angela Hamann, and Katherine McLachlan

The morning was off to an early 6:45 am start as we boarded our bus which we now refer to as the Bruce-mobile (named after our driver). It was about a two and a half hour drive to Modesto, CA where we visited the E&J Gallo Winery Inc. This is the largest winery in the world where we witnessed wine grape production in the vineyard, manufacturing, and management of the entire supply chain. Dan Martins, the plant manager and Chris Savage, senior director of global environmental affairs gave us a thorough tour of the winery so that we could learn about each stage of the operation. After viewing the large winery facilities we headed to view some of the Gallo vineyards where they grow all of their grape varieties. Alan Reynolds, the vineyard manager, showed us many different kinds of grapes trellises and grape harvesting machines. After a tour of the vast fields they hosted us to a very nice lunch in a small picnic area on the farm. They cooked a traditional Mexi-Californian BBQ on an outdoor patio overlooking the vineyards, and we got our first taste of some locally-made wine.

After an awesome lunch we got back on the Bruce-mobile and headed north to a dairy farm just north of Modesto CA. When we arrived at Fiscalini Farms, dairyman John Fiscalini met us by their cheese house to start the tour. He explained to the students the policies and regulations that he has encountered as a dairy farmer in California and how his farm has had difficulties with the local clean air board and water board to meet the unfair standards that they have set. While explaining this, the students got a tour of their 1400 cow dairy farm, including the freestanding barns, milk parlor, and methane digester. At the end of the tour we ended up at the cheese house where he talked about the four cheeses that the farm produces, where they were sold, and the multiple awards that the cheese has won in the last ten years since the cheese component started operating, including “Best Cheddar in the World” at the 2007 World Cheese Awards in London.

Upon the conclusion of the dairy tour we took the short drive into Modesto where we were hosted at the Gallo family-owned restaurant called Galletto’s Ristorante. There we enjoyed a lovely dinner of salad, penne al pollo, and gelato. After dinner we drove an hour and a half back to San Francisco.

Tomorrow we check out of the hotel at 11am. Many of us have plans to get in a little last minute sightseeing and possibly shopping. We have really enjoyed being able to see the city and more importantly to experience many facets of agriculture in California. Overall it was a great experience to be a part of. We have truly learned about the differences between California Ag Policy and agriculture compared to Illinois Ag Policy and the corn and soybean fields that we call home.

Stay tuned for more photos from the trip HERE.

Wednesday from the Bay

Posted on March 22, 2013 by ACE Experiential

By Patrick Boland, Preston Brown, Lucas Frye, & John Schuler

We began the day with an early start heading towards the state capital, Sacramento. Upon entering the city for California Ag Day we made our first stop at the CDFA (California Department of Food and Agriculture) building to sit down with Secretary of Agriculture Karen Ross. Raised on a farm in Nebraska, she first followed her husband’s job to the west coast before becoming active as a lobbyist for agriculture and even winegrape growers. We talked through and asked questions about issues around milk pricing, water management, and GMO labeling. One underlying message she relayed was the need for better communication between everyone – consumers, farmers, and legislators to solve the complex problems of today. Throughout our hour with her, everyone left the room impressed with her high energy level and passion for agriculture, two qualities necessary to face the several challenging problems facing the industry.

Following our meeting with the secretary we swung through the Ag Day Rally on the steps of the Capital building. Commodity and food groups were lined up around a little square handing out free samples of California-grown produce and foods. Secretary Ross, House majority leaders, and the President of California Farm Bureau Federation gave brief positive remarks about the importance of California agriculture. We also saw a trained border patrol dog tackle through bags containing foreign fruits, and an attempt to set a record by feeding hundreds of Sacramento school-aged children from the “world’s largest school lunch tray.”

From there we moved on towards Montna Rice Farms in Dingville. We had the opportunity to sit in their conference room and learn about modern rice production and some of the factors they have to think about on a regular basis. Specifically of close concern to them was proper water management practices and endangered species. Rice production revolves around flooding their fields, and with this comes practices of planting seed through airplanes, spraying with tractors equipped with thin steel-wheeled tractors, and leveling off the fields with a laser-guided land grader. While they do use a lot of water through their production practices, they do feel as though they are providing an important habitat for several native and sometimes endangered birds. Although we were unable to see the actual rice fields because of the time of year, it was a very educational stop.

We then jumped back on the bus and headed towards the hills of Yolo County to visit Full Belly Farms, a diversified organic farm. At our visit, we were shown around several of the over 100 different organic products that they produce on their 400 acres throughout a growing year. Horseradish, asparagus, and lettuce filled the current ‘weekly’ CSA (community supported agriculture) boxes that they ship each week to nearly 1200 customers in northern and central California. They also sell products to restaurants and grocery stores. Other organic products we saw included flowers, yarn made from their own sheep wool, chickens, and tomatoes. Basically their only input cost is organic compost and labor (60 full-time workers). At Full Belly Farms, they try to coordinate their fields as an ecological system, where they try to have benefits from one production crop transfer over to another. Through their extensive compost system and use of solid cover crops, they feel as though they can produce solid yielding, healthy, and nutritious products. Aside from their production sales, they also put on numerous day camps throughout the summer for kids to learn about agriculture. This program was started by farmer Paul Muller’s daughter, Hallie, as she became interested in coming back to the farm for full time employment after college.

We finished the evening by being treated to a large meal of organic Full Belly foods at the beautiful family farmhouse. Hamburgers, asparagus, roasted herb potatoes and carrots encompassed the main meal and we topped it off with, of course, organic ice cream. Hallie looked around at the end of the night and asked Dr. Ellinger if she should give a last call on ice cream to the group before we departed, to which he replied, “Well I think we’ve all got a full belly!”

All in all, it was another enlightening day here in California. We are looking forward to another full day on Thursday touring California’s most distinguished agriculture: dairy and wine.

(Rice Tractors): These steel wheels allow for tractors to move through the water-emerged rice fields when spraying for weeds.