A student anymore, doesn't want to sit on his or her butt for 2 or 3 or 4 years in one place. I use the metaphor of the honeybee - they're optimally foraging in different places. They go to Purdue, get a class or two; they go to wageningen and get a class or two; they may go to the University of Arizona and get a class or two; or maybe it's a CTE college
The farmtech Society is very fortunate to have Sonny Ramaswamy as a supporter and ambassador for our organisation!
After six years of service as President Obama’s appointee as the Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) in Washington DC, Sonny Ramaswamy assumed the presidency of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities from July 2018.
Prior to this position in the federal government, he worked for 30 years at several Land-Grant Universities, rising through the ranks from assistant professor to professor to distinguished professor and head of the department to associate dean to dean.
In the United States as well as in other countries, the federal or central (or whatever you call it) government and the local and state governments have a significant role to be partners in these enterprises. They've got the wherewithal, they have the ability to provide the investments as well... what mayor or governor wouldn't love to have more jobs created in their backyard?
Sonny has a particular interest and skills in facilitating Strategic Planning, Conflict Resolution, Academic Research, Teaching and Extension Excellence, University-Industry Partnerships, Mentoring, Public Speaking, Program Management, Leadership Development, Grantsmanship, Strategic Budgeting, Alumni Relations, Fundraising and Development, Congressional and Legislative Relations, and Stakeholder Relations.
Our Chairman Ian Kanski and Secretary-General Thomas Zoellner took the opportunity to have a chat with Sonny, drawing on his experience and opinions for the future of CEA and agtech.
One of the biggest needs that some of these companies that you work with [have] is not some highfalutin phd or masters... they want students - it's information technology - stduents that have hands on experiential learning. And what's been shown over and over again... [is that] you need different skill sets at different levels
You can see more videos from this discussion on the FTS youtube channel!
You can also see Ian Kanski and Sonny Ramaswamy, along with Industry experts Laura Vickers and Marito Garcia at our live webinar with our partner Indoor Ag-Con, coming up this week.
Register here: https://indoor.ag/webinar/
