NAMA: Experience for Ag Students

As you have heard me say before, being an agriculture major means you are getting more than just a classroom education. Last week, I was in Kansis City attending the National Agri-Marketing Conference with other members of my university's Student NAMA chapter. For the past year, our chapter has been working on a marketing project that we presented at this year's conference in Kansas City.
Each school that competes comes up with an innovative product directly related to the agriculture industry and designs a marketing plan for that product. This experience allows students to not only learn about marketing in a classroom setting, but to actually implement strategies and ideas. An experience like this prepares students to enter the work force with a better understanding of what it takes to implement a marketing strategy like the one we spent a year working on.

This year, our team made it to semi-finals with our marketing project. NAMA isn't just about working on a presentation, though. Our chapter was also recognized as the Outstanding Student NAMA Chapter and presented with a John Deere Signature Award. This award is presented to chapters who "excel in encouraging student opportunities for increased business knowledge, academic excellence, leadership development and community citizenship."
Working on the marketing project gives students useful experience, but it doesn't stop there. The opportunities and networking that an organization like this can offer a student are limitless and extremely valuable. Through NAMA I have had job shadowing opportunities, networking opportunities with countless professionals in the industry, and the opportunity to learn about marketing hands on and gain experience in public speaking through our presentation.
"The proof is in the pudding," and the pudding here proves that being an agriculture major offers students a learning experience that extends beyond the classroom, and into real-world experience. In my opinion, ag students are some of the most well prepared and sought after students upon graduation (take that Terence Loose, author of Most Useless Degrees)!