College Aggies Online

Program Prepares Young Ag Advocates
Marlys Miller Thursday, October 01, 2009

The Animal Agriculture Alliance has launched "College Aggies Online", a new program aimed at helping today's college students become confident advocates for the agriculture industry.

"We are looking forward to providing the tools that young agriculturists need to communicate effectively with the public," says Kay Johnson Smith, Alliance executive vice president. "College students who participate in the program will do more than just build their resume-- they will help ensure the future of America's agriculture industry by sharing accurate information about modern farming and ranching."ﾠ ﾠ

College Aggies Online is a joint venture of the Alliance and American National CattleWomen. It will connect college students from across the country who are interested in promoting agriculture by sharing their stories. Participants will receive training and instructions from industry professionals and will enjoy access to a private forum to post information about current and emerging issues facing farmers and ranchers.

The online community will provide resources to students on key issues to help them better utilize tools such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to share agriculture's story with the public. "Social networking Web sites offer an effective platform for reaching large audiences of people who do not have farm backgrounds," Johnson Smith says. Read More

There are some really great new online tools being used by young agriculturalists that I want to highlight in the next few weeks. The first one is College Aggies Online, which will be launched on October 15. This site will allow college students to share more information about themselves and agriculture with our consumers. There are many people even within our own industry that say young people aren’t interested in agriculture anymore. I always disagree. As I have traveled across this country, I continually meet young adults that impress the heck out of me. Even just a decade ago, when I was attending South Dakota State University, we weren’t concerned about going out and actively promoting agriculture. But today’s students are not only willing to do it, they are continually seeking opportunities to do so. Check out this new forum for yourself and you will undoubtedly be impressed by those that will be posting on there.