Des Moines, Iowa, recently played host to 62 student delegates meeting for the inaugural Agriculture Future of America (AFA) Crop Science Institute. This news release from the group says this one of four AFA Leader Institutes, which connect passionate, talented college students from 25 universities from 21 different states to various sectors of the agriculture industry.

“Career exploration is an important part of the leader development process for college students,” said Russ Weathers, AFA CEO. “We are excited to give students a better look at the opportunities available. This environment introduces students to careers they may not have heard about before and allows them to make valuable connections with their peers and industry professionals.”

Some of those valuable connections were made Sunday night during an executive panel and dinner. Many more connections will be made throughout the event, particularly during industry tours on July 20. Monday morning, the students will head out bright and early to tour a variety of crop science companies and related service providers. The students will break into five tour groups and each group will visit four different companies. From seed and input companies to cooperatives and marketing agencies, the students will see a wide variety of possibilities within crop and soil sciences.

Student taking part in this institute were selected based on their talent, passion and commitment to the crop science industry. AFA’s partners offered sponsorships to cover the students’ registration costs. DuPont Pioneer, Monsanto Company, Valent U.S.A. Corporation and WinField, A Land O’Lakes, Inc. company provided support to cover students’ participation in this event. Cargill, Inc., Dow AgroSciences, GROMARK, Inc., and Syngenta also supported the program.