BLOG: New Intern in the CSU Wheat Breeding Program: My Involvement

My name is John Mitchek and I am an intern for the Colorado State University Wheat Breeding and Genetics program. I will be a senior at CSU this coming fall and I will graduate with a degree in journalism and agricultural literacy.

I grew up on a farm just north of Kit Carson, Colorado on the eastern plains. Our main crop is wheat and I grew up harvesting it every summer. When I came to college I decided to be involved in agriculture a different way.  With a degree in journalism and agricultural literacy, I want to be able to communicate all of the important issues in agriculture that most people do not understand and to promote agriculture as a whole.

I have been working part time in the CSU wheat quality lab since January and I have really enjoyed it. My duties have been running mixograph tests that analyze and record dough strength as well as running the NIR machine, which analyzes and records grain and flour protein content. I took the summer internship position because I wanted to see a different part of the wheat production industry. So far this summer I have continued to do lab work and I will go out on harvest with the program later this summer.

As a summer intern, I will also perform journalistic duties for Colorado Wheat to gain journalism experience in an agricultural environment. Working with Colorado Wheat and the CSU Wheat program puts me in a unique position to report what is going on in the program. During the upcoming harvest, I will be blogging and following harvest to report my observations as well as reporting on how specific wheat varieties are performing at each location.

I look forward to gaining journalistic experiencing while learning as much as I can about the wheat industry here in Colorado.

 

 

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