Ever.Ag is proud that its inaugural summer internship program featured an impressive roster of 18 participants across several departments.
Our interns worked at one of the many Ever.Ag offices located in Frisco, TX, Chicago, IL, Windsor, Canada, Gurugram, Haryana, India, or at remote locations. The interns arrived from many different backgrounds and are pursuing a variety of degrees, but all chose to spend their summer working with Ever.Ag to broaden their professional and educational experiences.Why Ever.Ag?
When asked why they chose Ever.Ag over other summer opportunities, many interns expressed the excitement of working for a rapidly growing company. Several others credited their agricultural background for selecting the Ever.Ag intern program. Michael Joyce is a software development intern studying computer science and mathematics at Windsor College in Ontario, Canada. He said, “I thought the company had a lot of value and had its hands in a lot of different kinds of technology, so I felt it was a great way to hone skills and join a great community.” Jan Prins studies actuarial science and systems financing at Dordt University in Sioux Center, Iowa. Jan grew up working summers at a family dairy farm but traded that for the big city this year, working as an agent broker intern in our downtown Chicago office. He was thankful to gain experience related to his studies while being involved with the dairy industry. “I wanted to complete an internship related to the stock market,” he said. “When I found out I could do that and stay in the dairy industry, I got really excited.” Overall, interns found inspiration in Ever.Ag’s mission to empower supply chains to feed a growing world across the dairy, livestock, and agribusiness sectors.Projects and Responsibilities
Interns tackled a number of different responsibilities. Many were able to get hands-on experience with what makes the business run, such as working with software Ever.Ag uses on a daily basis, like Salesforce and Marketo. They also conducted hauler interviews and created milk pricing and break-even calculators. Others organized and communicated data, analyzed dairy markets, solved customer software issues, or enhanced functionality to existing software. Regardless of their assigned projects, the interns stayed busy, built connections, and obtained relevant industry experience. Several interns conveyed how grateful they were to apply what they were learning in the classroom to real-time scenarios and situations within the industry.“The environment I’m in allows me to improve skills I’ve been working on for a long time. My higher-ups have been beyond supportive, and the open environment has really nurtured my learning process.”
Arjun Pandey, a data and intelligence intern, was looking to gain experience applying what he was learning at the University of Illinois, Champaign, where he studies Econometrics and Environmental Sustainability.
“The position matched well with my skillset and the theories I study in school and helped me understand how to actually apply them to real-world situations, which is something I was looking to gain experience in,” he said.
As a database management intern for Ever.Ag, Maya Prince, said she appreciated learning new skills in data management and the dairy industry.
“The environment I’m in allows me to improve skills I’ve been working on for a long time. My higher-ups have been beyond supportive, and the open environment has really nurtured my learning process,” she said.
Maya is studying Information Science at the University of North Texas.
Exposure to Agriculture
While many interns in the program have an agricultural background, most do not. Interns unfamiliar with the farm-to-table process and agricultural terminology quickly caught on to the importance of the supply chain and agriculture as a whole. Dylan Meyer worked as a data intelligence intern in Chicago with Ever.Ag’s Financial Services Division. He studies Information Systems and Support Management at Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois.When asked how his agricultural knowledge improved, he said, “I have learned a lot. Hearing the brokers communicate forces you to pick up on agricultural terms and ideas so that you can understand what they are talking about. I did not know anything about agriculture coming into this internship, and now I can hold a conversation with people about it.”
Eryn Bing is studying Professional and Technical Communications at the University of North Texas. She served as the technical writing intern for Dairy.com by Ever.Ag. She said, “I am still learning a lot about the dairy industry, but I found out that it makes up 3% of the job market but feeds 100% of the population, and that’s a huge deal!”
“I have learned a lot. Hearing the brokers communicate forces you to pick up on agricultural terms and ideas so that you can understand what they are talking about. I did not know anything about agriculture coming into this internship, and now I can hold a conversation with people about it.”
Favorite Part About Working for Ever.Ag
All interns reported a positive experience spending their summer with Ever.Ag and offered many answers when asked about their favorite part. A common theme in responses pointed to the people they had the opportunity to work with daily. Wes Dundon is an implementations intern for EFC Systems by Ever.Ag studying Food and Agricultural Business at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He said, “My favorite part is definitely the people. The team I have been around in the office has been so helpful in training me and encouraging me to ask questions. They are so knowledgeable about the software I work with and the clients. That is the best part.”“My favorite part is definitely the people. The team I have been around in the office has been so helpful in training me and encouraging me to ask questions. They are so knowledgeable about the software I work with and the clients. That is the best part.”
Another frequent favorite was gaining hands-on experience through daily responsibilities and the feeling that they were making a difference in the company through their work.
Morgan Bradshaw recently graduated from Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, with a degree in Ag Business Management. She worked as a sales operations intern and said, “I got to do some of the work that directly impacts the sales operations team. It makes me happy to have made that contribution.”
2023 Summer Internship Program Information
University Recruitment efforts are already underway for the 2023 Summer Internship season. Ever.Ag will be finalizing summer internship offerings soon, and we are planning to attend some college career fairs in the fall as well. If you’re interested in more information about summer 2023 internships with Ever.Ag, please contact Ashlee Harwell at Ashlee.Harwell@Ever.Ag.© 2022 Ever.Ag, Confidential and Proprietary