This semester, Field Atlas will be on university campuses across Indiana to connect students with opportunities in agbioscience fields of study, career paths, companies hiring and where to apply for real-time internship + job opportunities.
9/15 | Notre Dame Engineering Science, and Technology Career Fair
9/16 | IU Indianapolis SciTech Fair
9/16 | Huntington University Career Fair
9/17 | Indiana State University Career Fair
9/17 | Ball State University Career Fair
9/29 | Butler University Career Fair
9/30 | DePauw University Career Fair
10/6 | Marian University STEHM Career Fair
10/7 | IU Bloomington Environmental Career Fair
10/7 | Purdue College of Ag Career Fair
Mallika Swaminathan
MS Analytical Chemistry | IU Indianapolis
How did you hear about the Field Atlas Agbioscience Company Tours?
I met Karis Witte, the Career Success Manager at AgriNovus at the IU Indianapolis Spring Career Fair.
After hearing about the tours at the career fair, what interested you most about joining Field Atlas for the company tours cohort this year?
I really liked how they merged what we learned in our classes to actual real fields like agriculture and labs. The networking event is really fun too. You get to meet big people from Eurofins and Corteva, and it’s a really great opportunity.
Prior to the tours, you attended a networking dinner. How was your dinner and what did you learn about the professional development experience?
The dinner was awesome, especially the chocolate cake. It was a fantastic networking event and there were people from so many diverse fields ranging from biopharma sectors to agriculture sectors , and animal husbandry. It’s good to talk to people who are involved in science and follow good science. AgriNovus, by creating Field Atlas has done a fantastic job by helping merge all these fields together.
How has the tour today shifted your perception of careers in agbioscience?
I have never seen something live on agricultural fields – this is my first time. Looking at hybrids at Beck’s hybrids and then seeing work in animal healthcare at Eurofins has really broadened my view of science. Especially as a chemistry major, it’s not limited to what I was thinking like farming or something, but it’s a whole world and agriculture is the only sector that touches almost all fields of education. 10/10
What was your favorite part of the tour?
Being an analytical chemist, I always like to work on instruments and get the results out. So, my best part was going to the Eurofins lab tour where I saw HPLC, GCMS, and tandem mass spectroscopy. And that’s literally what we study, and I could see how it helps in bigger industries.
How do you see yourself potentially making an impact in agbioscience in the future?
I would like to help with the production and improving the scale of production. My recent project was working on bovine skin diseases, so I would like to work on improvement with bovine skin disease as well as increasing the production rate in agriculture.
Learn more about Agbioscience Company Tours here.
Ivan Musingo
MS in Entrepreneurship & Engineering at Notre Dame
What interested you most about joining Field Atlas for the Company Tours cohort this year?
As someone who’s doing engineering and entrepreneurship together, my plan was to see what’s actually going on in Indiana and see what kind of products and services companies are offering and how their business models work. This tour fits directly with what I wanted to learn about in the region and I’m glad I was a part of it. I found that after the tour and visiting the companies, there is a lot going on and anyone can plug into the industry and be able to build a career here.
How was your experience at the networking dinner and what did you learn professionally?
Yesterday we had dinner at Eddie Merlot’s – nice steak, I recommend. We sat next to Ken Isley, partner at Barnes & Thornburg. He was a very interesting guy who has worked for the government before and now works for a law firm. He shared a lot of experience from the beginning of his career when he didn’t know what he wanted, to joining law school, and how he found himself working in agriculture and actually the government side of agriculture as well. Just networking with someone full of life and full of an interesting career was very inspiring for me.
How has the tour shifted your perception of careers in agbioscience?
What shocks me is what’s being done – there are so many things. We visited two companies – one called Beck’s Hybrids and one called Eurofins. I didn’t know that companies like Beck’s, who deals with corn, are doing so much more than growing corn for food like we see on the table. There are so many things actually happening around it. I also didn’t know there’s so much science, business, testing, and labs related to agriculture as well. I was very glad to visit these companies.
What was a fun fact you learned on the tours?
At Eurofins there is something they call lab poop which is literally molasses but it looks like poop. It kind of looks nasty and disgusting but actually smells really nice. It’s like chocolate and milk. Apparently, cattle like sweet things, so they normally add it to cattle feeds so that the cows can enjoy their meals.
What was the most interesting part of the tours?
The most interesting part for me was how massive the operations at Beck’s Hybrids were. Although I’d heard it before, I didn’t know they were that large scale in Indiana and in this area, so I was very fascinated by how much they can produce and what they are doing at their facilities.
How do you potentially see yourself making an impact in agbioscience?
My plan is to mainly be on the side of commercializing the different products that all these companies are developing. My point is to figure out what the client or the people in the agbioscience industry want and need and then see that through development and figuring out how we can best commercialize all of the products they are developing and all of the services like Eurofins does for testing. I’m seeing myself in the space where I’m supporting the commercialization of these different products and innovations that are being made at the different companies that I’ve seen today. That’s how I see myself growing in this career.
Learn more about Agbioscience Company Tours here.
The Field Atlas Agbioscience Mentorship Program was launched nearly 5 months ago in February of 2025, and the connections mentees have been able to make through the first half of this program are truly inspiring.
AMP is a guided yearlong mentorship program that connects late college and early professionals to industry leaders excelling in the agbioscience field. This year, 14 professional mentor/mentee connections were made through AMP – one of those including China Thompson, Senior at Marian University pursuing a degree in Nutrition, Fitness & Wellness and aspiring Nutritionist.
China originally applied to the AMP program hoping to achieve a better understanding of the agbioscience industry and develop a broader network in this space. China was really hoping this experience would help her bridge the connection between Nutrition, Fitness & Wellness and the impact this has on the agbiosciences. Due to China’s shared passion for food, health, nutrition and community outreach plans, she was paired with Jenni Browning – CEO at American Dairy Association Indiana — who serves as her mentor. Given Jenni’s demonstrated history of working in the dairy community and her background as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist with a master’s degree focused on Dietetics, it was evident that Jenni would be able to provide relevant guidance and advice in China’s career journey.
Not only has Jenni provided an avenue for China to expand her knowledge in the agbioscience space through this program, but she has also helped China work to achieve her professional goals of working with the public to achieve better health and optimal nutrition as well as working in programs that help communities access healthy food. China recently shared two experiences she got to take part in due to her participation in AMP and relationship she has created with Jenni (see below):
“Thank you to Jenni Browning & the American Dairy Association of Indiana for inviting me along for such a fun week! I got to attend the Fastest Rookie Luncheon where it was an honor to celebrate the 3 fastest rookies of 2025 & participate in racing’s most cherished tradition, drinking dairy milk! This tradition started back in 1936 when the winning driver, Louis Meyer pulled into victory lane & requested buttermilk to drink. Not only has this tradition lived on but it’s been an exciting way to share dairy nutrition with everyone!
Today, I got the opportunity to be a part of the Zoopolis 500! I have never had so much fun giving away FREE chocolate milk to families & it was incredible to see so many kids get excited to drink chocolate milk!
Both of these events felt special to me as a student studying Nutrition, Fitness, & Wellness Marian University Indianapolis, passionate about nutrition & wants to support our Indiana farmers!
Remember 3 things:
1. Milk is an amazing source of nutrition with 13 essential nutrients in every cup of cow’s milk! 🐄
2. Low-fat chocolate milk 🍫 is nature’s sport drink to hydrate & rebuild muscle after intense exercise!
3. The most important, WINNER’S DRINK MILK! 🥛🏁”
We love seeing the different opportunities students and young professionals are provided with through this experience. If you’re interested in learning more AMP, click here. Registration for 2026 will open in the fall.
By: Charlee Williams
When people think of agriculture, it’s easy to picture rows of corn, a dusty tractor at sunset, or boots in the dirt—and to be honest, I love all of that. The hands-on, hard-working side of farming is what first drew me to environmental science and agriculture. But what I didn’t realize until becoming a Field Atlas Ambassador with AgriNovus Indiana is just how wide and innovative the world of agbioscience really is. It’s not a replacement for traditional ag—it’s a powerful extension of it. And that realization completely shifted how I see the future of food, farming, and my place in it.
As a Field Atlas Ambassador, I had the opportunity to connect with students across campus and introduce them to the world of agbioscience—a term many had never even heard before. Through conversations, presentations, and career exploration events, I got to share how agriculture is evolving far beyond what most people expect.
AgriNovus Indiana is dedicated to growing Indiana’s agbioscience economy, which brings together food, agriculture, science, and technology to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges—everything from food security and sustainability to plant genetics and precision ag. As I dove deeper into what agbioscience really is, I started to see agriculture in a whole new light.
Before this experience, I saw agriculture primarily as the boots-on-the-ground side of things: crop rotations, soil health, weather patterns, and livestock management. I still have a deep respect for those areas, and I believe they form the backbone of our food system.
But through AgriNovus, I came to see how data science, biotechnology, environmental engineering, and even entrepreneurship all play a critical role in feeding the world and protecting our natural resources.
I learned about companies using AI to detect crop disease, startups engineering sustainable fertilizers, and researchers designing climate-resilient crops. Suddenly, the image of agriculture in my mind expanded to include lab coats and algorithms alongside tractors and grain bins.
It was eye-opening—and incredibly exciting.
One of the most impactful parts of this journey was realizing that innovation in agriculture isn’t about being high-tech just for the sake of it—it’s about solving real-world problems in meaningful ways. Agbioscience is helping farmers boost productivity while adopting more sustainable practices, offering new tools and strategies for conservation management and resource efficiency. It’s also opening doors to careers that combine a passion for science with a deep sense of purpose—careers grounded in service, stewardship, and sustainability.
Throughout this experience, one theme that kept resurfacing was the strength of
community within agriculture. Whether it’s multi-generational farms, collaborative research teams, or statewide organizations like AgriNovus, the people behind the work matter just as much as the innovations themselves. Agriculture thrives on relationships— between farmers and the land, between producers and consumers, and among those working together to solve complex challenges. Even as the industry grows more high-tech, that sense of shared responsibility and support remains at its core. It reminded me that progress isn’t just about what we build—it’s about who we build it with.
I used to think I had to choose between “old-school” farming and modern science, but now I know that the two aren’t in competition—they’re part of the same story. The Field Atlas Ambassador program helped me realize that we need both the wisdom of the past and the tools of the future to build a resilient agricultural system.
If you’re a student interested in agriculture, science, sustainability, or technology—and especially if you haven’t considered how those things intersect—I highly recommend checking out Field Atlas and AgriNovus Indiana. There’s a place for every kind of thinker and doer in agbioscience.
My experience as a Field Atlas Ambassador didn’t just add a line to my resume—it gave me a new way of thinking about agriculture. It challenged me to grow, to communicate, and to see the world through a wider lens. And most of all, it reminded me that agriculture is evolving every day—and we all have a role to play in shaping its future.
Field Atlas Ambassadors are the on-campus connection to our Field Atlas career exploration platform. These students work with their peers to connect to agbioscience fields of study, career paths, companies hiring talent and where to apply for real-time internship + job opportunities.
Huntington University
Marian University
Get to know your campus ambassador here.
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