Learning about various aspects of the GROWMARK system and where they might best fit is the goal of the company’s associate program and Heather Miller is working into her third rotation in the program this summer.

Heather, pictured here on the left with GROWMARK Publications and News Specialist Karen Jones, has already spent six months in corporate communications, is currently working in government affairs, and will finish her 18-month associate program with a stint in marketing. “My very first project with GROWMARK was the re-design of GROWMARK.com. We hadn’t done anything with our website since ’95 when it launched so it was desperately in need of a face lift. ” Heather told me during the company’s media day recently. “That was a great first experience coming into the company because I got to learn a little bit about everything that we do.” Heather also worked on the launch of some of GROWMARK’s social media strategies.

In the government affairs division, Heather has been able to see how GROWMARK takes an interest on behalf of its members in legislative and regulatory action on both the state and national level. “We’re not just going to ag committee hearings. We have arms in energy, we do transportation issues, we cover a lot of labor and workplace environment issues,” she said.

Heather has an agricultural background and interned with GROWMARK in 2009 prior to being hired full time in June 2010. “The GROWMARK internship is a really excellent program,” she said. “We have about 50 interns every year and about a 70 percent retention rate – about 70 percent of interns then come back to be full time employees at GROWMARK after they graduate.”

Learn more about Heather and the GROWMARK intern and associate program here: Heather Miller Interview