Ferguson College of Agriculture

Get to Know Krista!

 

Tell us a little bit about yourself:

"Originating from the Golden State, I am a California native with a deep passion for and connection to agriculture. Growing up in the show ring showing hogs, my passion for hard work and the agriculture industry developed at a young age. One day my parents, a large animal veterinarian and a nurse, approached me about an opportunity to have a breeding swine project. The rest, as they say, is history. Showing hogs, working at the farm and being involved in agriculture became my passion.

 

That passion led me to pursue a degree in agricultural communications from OSU. I completed a bachelors and master’s degree in the same program. After graduation, my home state came calling and I accepted a job as the San Joaquin County AgVenture Coordinator. Having moved back to our home state, my husband Ryan and I, both work in the agriculture industry. Ryan also operates the family’s club lamb operation.

 

AgVenture is a county-wide agriculture and nutrition education program for third graders in San Joaquin County. I am tasked with planning and facilitating three AgVenture field days for the county’s 10,000 third graders. Additionally, I fundraise to support the program, which is free to participants. Moreover, I recruit thousands of volunteers to help educate students and chaperones about the agriculture industry. For the past year, we converted our program to a virtual platform. This provided new opportunities for students to go out to farms, virtually speaking, through virtual farm trips, live -stream events and a digital tour of the county’s booming agricultural industry."

 

What is your favorite part of your job?

"I’m proud to be bringing agriculture education and experiential learning to third graders in our county and positively representing agriculture to our community."

 

How has your agricultural communications degree served you in your career?

"My degree has served me well throughout my career. Marketing, grant development, and public relations are essential to my day-to-day activities. Having converted to a virtual platform for the past school year to meet challenges presented by the Pandemic, technical skills in video production/editing and web development have come in handy as well. Most importantly, the ability to think outside the box and think creatively has served me well."