Cameron Weber has always wanted to make a difference in the world. “I have always wanted to help people,” Cameron says. As a senior at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, majoring in biology, they hadn’t considered a career in agriculture until realizing their love for helping people and making an impact could be realized in the agbiosciences field.
As a freshman, Cameron pursued biomathematics, but quickly realized that a major in biology would more closely align with their passions and desire to make a difference in the world.
Cameron’s journey from biomathematics to biology and, specifically, to agbiosciences was not unlike many Generation Z students who seek to find careers that provide personal fulfillment, purpose, and align with their values. Cameron discovered how they could impact lives through plant science during an on-campus career fair and through conversations with AgriNovus Indiana Field Atlas, a program that provides peer-to-peer support to help students discover careers in the agbiosciences field.
“Erica, the Field Atlas representative, really encouraged me to see myself in agriculture and find my own unique way that I could be in this field that is highly overlooked by a lot of people,” Cameron says. Cameron now saw the field of agriculture as a potential avenue for creating change and making a difference.
“I think from a young age, we’re told there are only a few ways you can really make an impact, but that is not true,” Cameron says. Cameron explains that the field of agriculture can be just as impactful to people as medicine and technology. “Mitch Frazier, president and CEO of AgriNovus Indiana, always says agriculture is the only industry that touches every single person on the planet, and it is so true. If we don’t have agriculture, we really can’t explore these other really interesting scientific advancements like we do in medicine, technology, and other fields. They all intersect.”
Cameron eventually joined the Field Atlas program during their sophomore year as an ambassador and has been helping showcase how working in agriculture can help students find their place in the world and create change. “We connect their passions from when they were a kid to their current interests. For example, we have a picture of a drone on the stand we keep at the career fair, and we get a lot of people who don’t realize that drones, like many other types of innovation, are used to feed people. We always get a reaction like, ‘Wow, this is something I’m going to look into. I’m going to look at the job board and apply for jobs as a drone operator because that’s so cool. It’s igniting my passion I had as a kid and my current interest now.’”
For students who are looking to learn more about working in agriculture, Cameron advises them to ask questions. “Reach out to the professors who teach agriculture. Apply to the job that you think you will never get. Take the educated risk,” they say.
Cameron is in their final semester as a Field Atlas ambassador and will be graduating this spring. Cameron has enjoyed being a mentor and showing younger Field Atlas ambassadors how to interest students in a career, like agriculture, that they have never considered.
On one final note, they explained, “Just as agriculture touches all industries, it touches the lives of all people too. I hope students will take the time to recognize how agbioscience has positively affected their lives and consider how they can amplify this impact in their future careers.”
For more information about AgriNovus Indiana’s Field Atlas program, visit myfieldatlas.com.
