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Delaware (USA): The new hot major? Agriculture… Program offers diverse job opportunities for grads.  Kishana Williamson loves dolphins and, strangely enough, the marine mammals are the reason the University of Delaware senior spends her days studying chickens. Williamson expected to study marine science in college. But once she got there, she realized that “marine science was more about the ocean than the animals.” The programs that best fit her interests were animal science and wildlife conservation, both of which are part of the school’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “When I got into college, I had no idea I’d end up in agriculture,” said Williamson, 21, who is working on research related to avian influenza and other diseases that can be passed from animals to humans and vice versa. “When I got here I was like ‘Ag? No wait. …’ ”

In Delaware and across the USA, enrollments in agriculture schools are on the rise. Nationally, enrollment in bachelor’s degree programs in agriculture jumped 21.8 percent between 2005 and 2008, from about 58,300 students to nearly 71,000, according to a survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Many of the students have stories similar to Williamson’s. She grew up in the decidedly nonrural New York City suburb of Teaneck, N.J., and, although she and fellow agriculture students spend class and research time on the school’s working farm, she has no plans to become a farmer. Students are drawn to agriculture school by an interest in science, but many are drawn to the fact that, even in this economy, companies working on such things as developing renewable fuels from organic material are still hiring.

Monsanto, the St. Louis-based agribusiness company that makes seeds, pesticides and an array of other farm products, can’t hire enough. As of last month, the company had 100 openings for researchers in St. Louis. “We find it really hard to find people in science, in particular, because they tend to get snatched up by medical- and health care-related things,” Monsanto spokesman Darren Wallis said. Christina Collins, who graduated from DSU in 2008 with a degree in agriculture business, works for Monsanto as a territory sales manager in Pennsylvania. Collins started out as a marketing major but changed focus after finding a mentor in Harry Thayer, who works at DSU’s Cooperative Extension office.

“He talked to me about how you don’t necessarily need to be a farmer, and with an ag business degree you can work for different organizations like the USDA and for corporations,” said Collins, a Millsboro native who interned for Monsanto and the USDA while she was in school. “I just jumped in, so to speak, and I definitely agree that he helped me find a lot more opportunities there.” “With the education they get in the agriculture school, they’re not just trained to fill a specific void,” said Dyremple Marsh, dean of DSU’s agriculture school. “The agriculture companies, for example the DuPonts and the Monsantos, those companies are employing agriculture majors because of their science backgrounds.”

Wide range of possibilities

Some graduates of UD’s agriculture school go on to master’s degree programs and veterinary school. They’ve also gotten jobs selling pharmaceuticals, training elephants at Busch Gardens in Florida and teaching agriculture science to high school and middle school students.

“Less than 2 percent of our student population here comes from a farming background,” said Kim Yackoski, assistant dean of the agriculture school. “When I meet with prospective students, they’re interested in science and technology. You never really have a student come up to the table at a college fair and say ‘OK, I want to be a farmer.’”

Between 2000 and 2006, UD’s agriculture school received an average of 423 applications a year. For the current school year, it received 761 applications. About 700 undergraduate students are enrolled in the school, seeking degrees such as plant and soil science, wildlife ecology and food science.

At Delaware State University, 230 students are enrolled in the College of Agriculture and Related Sciences, a 32 percent increase since 2005. Major programs include wildlife management, horticulture and agribusiness.

Administrators at both schools have worked hard in recent years to eradicate misconceptions about the programs and what types of jobs make a good fit for its graduates.

“That’s our constant problem, educating people about what the college really teaches,” said Tom Sims, associate dean of UD’s agriculture school. “The vast majority of people in the United States don’t know anything about agriculture production, it’s just not a part of their daily life. We explain that what we are doing is biology, chemistry, engineering, economics.”

Farming and DNA research

Some of the students that enroll in the agribusiness management program at Delaware Technical & Community College do intend to work on family farms. Others find jobs in the poultry industry, or with the state and federal government, department chair Kyle Serman said.

“It’s just hard for [students] to work on a farm unless they were raised on a farm,” Serman said. “Unless you’ve inherited that land, it’s going to be hard for the large grain farmers, the corn and the soybeans, to purchase the land and the equipment that goes with it and make a profit.”

Earlier this week, 2008 DSU graduate Antonette Todd was working in DSU’s Plant Molecular Genetics and Genomics lab, where she is now employed as a research technician. Research in the lab is focused on trying to breed heartier varieties of the common bean and figuring out why some varieties fight disease better than others.

Todd immersed samples of plant DNA in a bucket of ice in order to regulate their temperature while she set up a procedure to amplify the strands. The 28-year-old decided to pursue a master’s degree in plant science because she was interested in genetics and found a mentor in Venu Kalavacharla, the genomics lab’s principal investigator.

“He just happens to be in ag and he was doing genetics of plants,” Todd said. “I worked with mice and it was kind of a breath of fresh air to work with plants. I never got past being able to sacrifice mice. Although I’m sure plants have feelings, they don’t make noise when you kill them.”