By Nicholas Gosling
For many, education serves as a bridge. It bridges students to opportunities – opportunities to pursue dream careers and better-paying jobs; opportunities to make impacts in their communities and on the global stage; and opportunities to better serve others, including their families and vulnerable populations, and to better serve the natural world, like animals and the environment. The UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture serves as a bridge: A bridge to world-class experiential learning and research; to best-in-industry organizations offering internships, clinicals and jobs; and to a growing global reach that spans scholars, governments and heads of industry.
"Our faculty, staff, and students are engaged in work at a global level," said Anthony S. Davis, dean of COLSA. " Reinforcing the opportunities for our people to exchange ideas and share practices where we have deep thematic alignment in our research programs strengthens our educational offerings and the impact of the work we do."
Through some of these partnerships, COLSA welcomed several students to the UNH Durham campus this past summer, among them Eliudes Camps Marcano of the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez and Gillian Newbold of the State University of New York at Morrisville. For both these students, COLSA served as a bridge. In the case of Marcano, the college connected him to UNH’s agricultural and horticultural programs and gave him opportunities to grow his digital media training and portfolio in this sector. For Newbold, COLSA provided her a place to build upon her dairy industry and herd management experience and allowed her to complete a necessary internship required for her animal science degree — ultimately helping her to pursue her passion of working with dairy cows.
Combining Interests in Horticulture & Digital Media
Eliudes Camps Marcano (he/him)
- Summer Intern & Social Media Manager, labs of Anna Wallingford and Chris Hernandez, COLSA Fruit & Vegetable Team
- Bachelor of Science, Agricultural Science with Horticulture focus
- University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez
Eliudes Camps Marcano first discovered his interest in media production in high school in the town of Ceiba on Puerto Rico’s east coast. His teacher at the time launched a school newspaper, and he signed up to help. When the teacher left the school, Marcano stepped up to manage production of the publication, bringing parts of it online and finding ways to distribute it more widely to the student body.
“Being able to work in marketing and media is a really great skill set to have, because there’s so much you can do with it — like learn, promote yourself and your business and connect with people around the world,” Marcano said this past summer at the MacFarlane Research Greenhouses. “And it’s fun — I get to know a lot of people from working in social media and they get to know me too.”
Marcano, who studies agricultural science at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (UPR-M), spent this past summer in a place he’s never visited before — New England. Through UPR-M’s experiential learning program, Go Start Now, he was invited to a summer internship at UNH. The opportunity allowed Marcano to explore and build upon his two interests — agriculture and media production — and use them to help promote research taking place in the labs of Assistant Professor Chris Hernandez and Research Assistant Professor Anna Wallingford. In addition to managing social media for both labs, Marcano worked with other UNH faculty, staff and students to highlight their research and work.
“Working in digital media began as a hobby, and I eventually started doing various jobs that added to my skills,” he said. “Now, I’m excited to see what the applications could be within agriculture and horticulture.”
Back at UPR-M, Marcano studies small-scale agronomy and similar topics, researches coffee production, and participates in student government. His interest in horticulture precedes even his start working in media. Grandparents on both sides of Marcano’s family grew crops on their properties: plantains and pumpkins at one farm and mangoes, bananas and a variety of other fruits on the other. From an early age, he helped at the farms whenever he could, learning from his grandparents.
Today, Marcano views his agricultural science major and environmental law minor as paths toward helping solve some of Puerto Rico’s major issues, chief among them food production and food access for the territory’s 3.2 million residents.
“I’ll be supporting my home, helping to reduce our reliance on importing most of our food,” said Marcano. “My main goal with this internship was to gain knowledge that I could take back to Puerto Rico.”
“My time here working on research involving plants and addressing insects and other pests have all contributed to that goal,” he added, “and I’m excited to pursue similar studies back home.”
Pursuing a Passion for Working with Animals
Gillian Newbold (she/her)
- Summer Intern, UNH Organic Dairy Research Farm
- Bachelor of Technology, Dairy Management
- State University of New York at Morrisville
Gillian Newbold has always loved working with animals, stemming in part from her days as a dog handler in 4-H. She eventually became a top showperson for Labrador Retrievers in the country in the American Kennel Club’s Junior Showmanship division.
“I’ve always loved animals and had a fascination with farm animals,” Newbold said during an interview this past summer at UNH’s Organic Dairy Research Farm, where she spent nearly four months completing an internship as the final step toward earning her bachelor’s degree in dairy management from State University of New York at Morrisville.
Newbold found her way to cow and calf care during her degree program’s animal rotations. She enjoyed working with cows the most. Back at home in Gorham, N.Y., she’d spend her breaks from college working at a local dairy, where she was responsible for managing the calves and working with the pregnant cows.
“The calves make me smile, they make me happy, especially when they’re prancing around,” Newbold added. “Whenever I’m having a difficult day, I’ll go visit the calves.”
Her goal is to work as a herd manager, overseeing nutrition and care for the cows. Fortunately, this past summer, she’s built upon her dairy farm experience by caring for an organic herd, using new equipment, making feed and learning about pastureland management. It’s provided an important learning opportunity, and one not easily replicable while on the job.
“It’d be tough to learn to drive a tractor or work the feed mixer while on the job — there’s not a lot of room for error,” said Newbold. “So this summer internship has been great in that capacity by providing me a place to learn and to grow in my skills.”
Source : unh.edu