'A real perspective': New program offers farming internship to county schools students

Apr. 6—If you're a Cullman County farmer who could use a pair of extra hands this summer, a new student internship program funded through the USDA could help you do just that — all while helping a local high schooler take their first steps toward a possible career in agriculture.

Thanks to a three-year grant secured by the North Alabama Agriplex and funded through the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, two county students this summer will have a chance to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty at a pair of local farms.

For the students, it's a paid internship administered through the Cullman Area Technology Academy, but it won't cost participating farmers a dime. Funding for the interns' pay will come via the grant, which also covers a range of other agricultural interests facilitated through the Agriplex.

CATA already takes part in similar internship programs that help place Cullman County Schools students in first-step jobs that require a technological focus. But dipping a toe into the ponds, pastures, and productive labors of farming is something new — even to CATA's Adam Edmondson, the academy's work-based learning coordinator for Cullman County.

"Farming's not an easy chore. There are a lot of physical demands within a work environment that's not always ideal," explained Edmondson. "But hopefully, students in this program will learn that it's also very rewarding, too. We're reaching out through our contacts at the county schools to find students who are interested in either someday becoming a hobby farmer, or even in going into farming as a career. This program can help them gain some necessary and useful skills that should benefit them later on as they make those kind of decisions."

Agriplex office manager Markus Doering helped write the successful grant application, which secures funding for three years of internships that will become available to students beginning this summer. The idea, he said, is "to build and extend relationships with our local farmers while also setting up a career-track program for CATA students who might otherwise not have access to an environment where they can learn about farming."

Agriplex advisors and longtime local ag experts Tony Glover and Arnold Caylor will serve as liaisons and advisors for farmers who take part in the program, while consulting on other funding areas that the grant also covers. "I think it's just a great opportunity, especially for those young people who maybe have only tangentially been around farming before," said Glover.

"We do live in a farming community, but as times have changed, a lot of young people maybe haven't had a chance to get the kind of practical, hands-on work experience on a farm that kids used to get, right here in this community, years ago," he added. "Those opportunities have kind of been lost for many over the years, and this hopefully can help introduce a few new young people back into it."

A key component of the program is to make sure farmers themselves will be well served by having some extra help, and both Glover and Caylor are there to assist as farmers weigh whether to take on, and perhaps even mentor, a student intern. Summertime is only the start for the ongoing program, which also aims to place future interns at other farming locations at the start of the fall semester (as well as future academic terms), which means a sizable handful of local farms could get involved before the full internship funding has run its three-year course.

"My role," said Glover — who also consults for the Agriplex's Military Veteran and Beginning Farmer program — "is to work directly with the farmer, and to try to assist them in any way they might need. That could mean learning about the various USDA and NRCS type of programs that might be applicable to their farm situation, and in this case it means finding and advising those who might be interested in participating with a student intern. We're narrowing down our first round of farmers now, and we already have two or three in mind to get us started."

A significant portion of the $253,000 grant is being used to fund the internship program, though it also extends funding to other Agriplex outreach efforts — including the Military Veteran and Beginning Farmer program as well as an annual workshop series with the Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama. For CATA's Edmondson, it's an innovative way to offer county high schoolers the same kind of hands-on workplace experience in farming that their peers already enjoy through placement partnerships at local industries — all while receiving academic credit, as well as progress within the ranks of their local FFA chapters.

"This is something that I don't know has ever been done in our area," said Edmondson, who oversees a broader ongoing co-op program that encompasses 350 CATA students. "It's a great opportunity, really, for both the students and the farmers. The farmer won't incur any cost since the internships are paid out of the grant, and the students can gain a real perspective on what farming as a career is really like."

Doering noted that the internship program extends only to farmers located in unincorporated Cullman County, and is exclusive to Cullman County Schools students through the school system's career training program at CATA. If you're a local farmer who's interested in participating, find out more by contacting the Agriplex at 256-297-1044 or via email at cullmanag@gmail.com.

Benjamin Bullard can be reached by phone at 256-734-2131 ext. 234.