When Abrah Meyer was a kid, she envisioned her future with a white coat and stethoscope in the sterile hallways of a hospital. Today, the former national FFA central region vice president and current FFA alumni member is studying agricultural business and supply chain management at Iowa State University.
“I grew up on a farm, and it wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I began to really appreciate what was going on in the agricultural industry,” Meyer says. “As a kid, it was more along the lines of ‘UGH! I have to get up before dawn and be out in the fields again!’”
“The coolest part of AgExplorer is the interactive career assessment you can take.”
In fact, medical school was the game plan up until Meyer’s senior year of high school, when she enrolled in an agribusiness and markets class. During the course, she learned more about market analysis, international business and economics. From there, she was hooked.
“It took me my entire high school career to realize I wanted to work in agriculture,” Meyer says. “FFA members today have the AgExplorer resource at the tips of their fingers, and they can make inquiries and decisions much earlier than I did.”
FFA partnered with Discovery Education and AgCareers.com to create AgExplorer – a site filled with countless resources for FFA members of all ages to explore careers within agriculture. Viewers can do in-depth research into nine career focus areas, review at least 235 unique career profiles, participate in virtual field trips and connect with industry professionals from Ford, Cargill, CSX, Zoetis, John Deere and more.
“The coolest part of AgExplorer is the interactive career assessment you can take,” Meyer says. “You can enter the classes you enjoy the most, the work environment that is the most appealing to you and even your hobbies.
“The assessment will generate the areas where you might find a career in agriculture. For example, I really love math and science. When I took the assessment, one of the careers it said I should look at was commodity merchandising, which is a lot of the supply chain management work I am studying at school right now.”
FFA members can discover professional organizations and associations connected to potential career options. Members can join these organizations to build their professional skills and to make connections that could lead to job shadowing, mentoring and internships through a global network of agriculturists – no matter what stage of their career they are in.
