On the evening of April 15th AEDE’s undergraduate professional development groups held their yearly banquet to honor faculty and students who actively contribute to professional development opportunities for AEDE’s undergraduate program. Student groups associated with the AEDE program include the Agribusiness Club, the Ohio State chapter of the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA), and the Ohio State chapter of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA).
During the evening several students and faculty were recognized by their peers for outstanding contributions to the AEDE professional development program. Students awarded Dr. Brian Roe, AEDE McCormick Professor and Undergraduate Studies Leader, with the 2012-2013 Outstanding Professor award. AEDE student Sarah Peterson was named the Agribusiness Club’s Outstanding First Year Member, while Shana Hay was named the Club’s Outstanding Transfer Student Member. Additionally, senior Agribusiness Club members Greg Reinhart and Cass White were named the Club’s Outstanding Senior Members.
The event, which was held at Ohio State’s Fawcett Center, also included a dinner, recognition of the recent winners of AEDE’s scholarship competition and the department’s generous scholarship donors, introductory remarks from AEDE Department Chair, Dr. Tim Haab, as well as year in review presentations from Agribusiness Club and NAMA team members and remarks from Barry Ward, Agribusiness Club faculty advisor. The evening also included recognition of the Agribusiness Club’s 2012-2013 officers, as well as acknowledgement of the incoming officers for the 2013-2014 academic year. The evening featured a special keynote address from Dr. Bernard Erven, AEDE Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics. In his work at Ohio State, Dr. Erven focused on human resource management and family business management.
The Agribusiness Club is comprised of more than 50 undergraduate students from throughout Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. The Club meets twice a month during the academic year and hosts guest speakers from various agribusinesses who inform students of the work of their organizations, including offering recruitment advice for upcoming internship and job opportunities at their companies. The Club also sponsors an academic scholarship in the department and Club members take a yearly trip within the U.S. to tour agribusiness facilities and meet with representatives working in the field; this year the Club traveled to St. Louis, Missouri.
View a video recap of the year's activities from the OSU Agribusiness Club:
The NAMA Student Marketing team spends most of the academic year preparing to present a marketing plan for a new product at the annual national NAMA conference where they compete with teams from all over the U.S. in the competition. This year’s conference is being held from April 17-19th in Kansas City and AEDE students will presented a chocolate-infused peanut butter. Through participation in this professional development group students build skills in marketing research, business writing, and public speaking. The faculty advisor for the Ohio State NAMA team is Dr. Steven Vickner.
April 16, 2013