Last fall, we established an internship section on our Proud to Dairy site by reaching out to dairy industry producers, professionals and educators. We are once again hoping to provide college students with a resource for dairy farm internships across the country. If you’d like to get the word out about an internship at your dairy operation, e-mail the following information to Emily Caldwell at emily@progressivedairy.com:

• Farm name
• Contact person
• Contact e-mail and/or phone
• Location
• Herd size and make-up
• Number of acres
• Requirements of intern
• Age or course year required of intern
• Required courses and/or experience
• Other qualifications
• Housing provided?
• Dates/duration of internship
• Number of slots available
• Responsibilities during internship
• Deadline to apply

Students, we currently have internship listings in California, Kansas, Nebraska and Pennsylvania, as well as information about international internships through Global Cow.

While you’re on the site, be sure to read these recent blog posts about internships.

Kimmi Devaney, a senior at Washington State University, provides some advice about the internship hunt in her post, “Time to Start Looking for Summer Internships!”:

Internships are a great way to “test drive” a career you think you may want to pursue after graduation. It’s a great way to get experience, and the worst thing that can happen is that you discover that you don’t actually want to pursue that after graduation. That’s okay.

In fact, learning what you don’t want to do is more important than discovering your dream job. After all, nobody likes being stuck in a job they don’t enjoy.

Internships. So many questions. “What do I want to do? Where do I start looking?

“What if I don’t have all of the qualifications they are looking for? Will it require relocating for the summer? What if I don’t find an internship?”

All of these questions have run through my head at some point in the last few years. Looking for an internship can be overwhelming, but it’s important to start early.

And Ashley Sears, a senior at Cornell University, discusses the importance of gaining experience in her blog, “The Value of a Summer Internship”:

In high school, the common question you may have been asked by your teachers, friends, and family was, “What do you want to do after college?”

We weren’t even done with high school yet, let alone college, and we were expected to have a step-by-step guide to our future. Some of my classmates were going to take over the family business, while others had known since they were eight years old that they wanted to be a veterinarian or a doctor, but a majority of students didn’t even know what they would be having for lunch that day.

After graduation, we moved into our freshman dorms and were anxiously anticipating what promised to be “the best years of our life.’”

College offers different experiences and takeaways for each of us, but the ultimate goal for most is to get a job once we leave campus. While we may not be sure what we want to do when we get to college, a great way to learn what we might be interested in is through a summer internship.

Read more blogs by Kimmi and Ashley at www.proudtodairy.com PD