Ag Industry Internship

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

Stephanie George, of Moxee, is currently working as an intern for the Washington Farm Labor Association, where for the next several weeks she will be helping the WAFLA staff with several priority projects.

GEORGE: WAFLA is really busy right now with the H-2A Guest Worker Program because it’s a really tight labor market and lots of members are calling and wanting to get workers, so I’m helping with that program. I will also be contacting members of WAFLA and doing outreach to see what kinds of human resource needs they have.

George says her background could be beneficial to the work she will be doing as an intern for WAFLA.

GEORGE: I come from a farm family so I have an agriculture background and I hope that that will really help me in that part of my job. And then I’m also working on a special project for WAFLA. I’m a student at Washington State University and I’m enrolled in the Honors Program. In order to graduate I have to complete a thesis and so this thesis is going to go hand in hand with this special project that I am doing for WAFLA. I will be focusing on the living wage phenomenon for agriculture workers and comparing wage benefits and the cost of living for farm workers as compared with other part-time or seasonal workers in Seattle and other parts of the state and other occupations.

George is pursuing a double degree at WSU in Agriculture /Food Business Economics and economics with an agriculture production option. After completing her studies George says she plans on attending law school and pursuing a career in agriculture policy. She is the second intern to work with the Washington Farm Labor Association, which is hoping to make the internship an annual event.

GEORGE: By doing internships such as this it helps me to expand my knowledge of the industry past what I’ve been exposed to.

That’s Washington Ag Today.

I’m Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.