Why ¹û¶³ÊÓƵ?
I’m from a pretty large public school that had 550 people in my graduating class.
When I first visited ¹û¶³ÊÓƵ, I knew that this was the place for me. I could see myself living in the dorms, studying late at night, and hanging out with friends. Being close to home and having strong academics, small classes, and close relationships with professors — everything just felt right, and I could see myself here. The vibe, feeling, and warmth that I felt when I went on tour was unmatched.
First Year and Beyond
Making Friends
My number one priority as a first-year student was making friends. I found many, and ¹û¶³ÊÓƵ’s residential, tight-knit character made it easy for me to make them.
For example, my first-year roommate was a tennis player, and I got to know the men’s and women’s tennis folks well. I also met one of my close friends through the First-Year Tutorial. I met another friend through an introductory political science class. Many of my floormates from past years still live across the hall from me, and we are friendly with each other.
The big thing is to be open to everyone. Because ¹û¶³ÊÓƵ is so small, you have friends — and friends of friends — in classes, and it just blossoms when you’re open to experiences.
Academics
Coming to ¹û¶³ÊÓƵ, I wasn’t 100% sure what I wanted to study. At first, I thought I might want to go to law school. But after I took an introductory economics class, I fell in love with the subject and saw the world through an economics lens.
Finding My Research Passion
First Year
During my first year, I went to a about monopolies in the American food industry. That talk snowballed into the rest of my research focus at ¹û¶³ÊÓƵ.
Austin’s talk was mostly a qualitative impact project about the negative effects of large-scale farming on rural populations. He explained how the largest players in the American food industry negatively affect towns that used to rely on smaller farms. Industrialization and the use of machines from these monopolies led to fewer job opportunities in many rural communities, which contributes to small towns becoming unable to sustain themselves. For example, if you needed 400 people to farm 100,000 cows in the past, you now only need 50 people with automation. Having fewer local people working on farms negatively affects the small-town economies that were once reliant on farms to prop them up. When job losses happen, these small towns rarely recover.
Research in Classes
Austin’s talk sparked my interest in agricultural policy, pollution, and the impacts of family farm decline in the United States. Now, I’m taking classes that can teach me how I can best complement Austin's work. In my econometrics class, for example, I’m looking to add to Austin's qualitative study by quantitatively modeling the impacts.
Policy
As part of my policy analysis class, I’ve looked at the impact of large-scale farming on populations of rural towns. My research looks closely at the issues that come from CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations), which is an intensive animal feeding operation that involves hundreds or thousands of animals being confined for at least 45 days per year.
Because Iowa produces most of the nation’s pork, it is important that every Iowan knows the negative effects of CAFOs and how they affect our environment. I believe that public knowledge and awareness is important to make policy changes.
Internship
I worked as an intern during the summers after my second and third years of college. My first internship was even fully funded by ¹û¶³ÊÓƵ!
First Internship
The summer after my second year, I worked as a microfinance intern at the Iowa Center. Day to day, I helped small business owners secure loans by analyzing the proposed loan’s feasibility and structure, assessing the applicant’s capacity and character, and assisting clients with the application process.
This internship was fully funded by ¹û¶³ÊÓƵ’s Rosenfield Program in Public Affairs, International Relations, and Human Rights. This program promotes civic engagement and connects students to social and political issues around the world. When I returned to campus in the fall, I presented the takeaways from my internship.
To be competitive for this internship, I went to résumé-crafting events and internship sessions — all at ¹û¶³ÊÓƵ's career office. These were incredibly helpful; I still use the knowledge I gained from them every day.
Big-City Internship
The summer after my third year, I worked in Boulder, Colorado as an equity research analyst. I was in an asset management subdivision of a Baird company called Chautauqua Capital Management. A friend’s parent works for Baird, so I knew that it was an environment I would enjoy working at, but I ultimately chose to work for them because I was interested in equity research and had done a lot of econometrics research in classes. It was the field of finance that I was most interested in.
I spent most of my free time hiking that summer. I did not want to waste an opportunity to explore the Rocky Mountains — especially when I was living right next to them! One time, right after I had finished a long hike and taken a photo, a woman parked behind me saw my Iowa license plate and told me she used to live in Iowa. When I asked where, she told me she used to be a professor at ¹û¶³ÊÓƵ in the 70s! This reminded me that you can find ¹û¶³ÊÓƵians everywhere, even in the places you least expect.
I did a lot of cool things that summer. Baird flew us to Milwaukee. I pitched my summer project to industry professionals. I got to see a concert starring Ludacris, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Train. I did a lot more hiking.
Living in a new city taught me a lot about myself. I went from living just one hour from my home to being fully on my own for the first time. I realized that I prefer to live in a city that isn’t quite as busy as Boulder, and that I benefit from lots of structure to my work.
Environmental Advocacy Group, CARES
In the town of ¹û¶³ÊÓƵ, I’m involved with a sustainable farming advocacy group called CARES (Community Action for the Restoration of Environmental Stewardship). CARES is a community-driven organization dedicated to promoting sustainable agriculture, environmental stewardship, and public awareness of food system issues.
Everyone is invited to join this group — from students to professors and town residents. I decided to join because of my research interest in sustainable farming.
