Agriculture Future of America (AFA) held their Crop Science Institute virtually July 18 – July 20. On Monday evening, National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) Manager of Market Development Michael Granché joined the Career Roundtable representing jobs in associations, nonprofits and member services. Granché was joined by Ellen Zimmerman, Director of Industry Relations for U.S. Grains Council, and together they spoke to three rounds of college students from across the country, answering their questions, providing advice, and sharing their own agriculture story, including how they began working for associations.
“I was involved with AFA as a college student and was actually one of the first three students to attend AFA from Virginia Tech. The experience had such a huge impact on me and definitely helped shape me into who I am today. AFA has a great program, and they’re truly helping equip the next generation of leaders who will help solve the agriculture industry’s challenges ahead. For example, I remember going through AFA Leaders Conference, and during their Opportunity Fair, there wasn’t anyone there representing commodity associations. It’s such an honor to work for a commodity association, especially NCGA, and telling students about the different kinds of jobs, successes, and challenges within associations is very fulfilling, especially if they’re unfamiliar with what we do,” said Granché.
