Fire-Fighting Ag Economist: During the school year Joe Brown is a mild mannered environmental economics student at the University of Georgia. But come summertime, he picks up his shovel and ax and heads west to work as a fire fighter for the National Forest Service.

But working for the forest service wasn't just a good time. Joe saw the principles he had learned in class put into action. Knowing how a forest works and about the economics of environmental preservation gave him a better understanding of what the Forest Service was doing.

"It was cool to come at it from an environmental economics angle, too," he said. "Because it's an interdisciplinary major and we have to take a lot of ecology courses, when we sat around and talked about issues I had a better understanding of what was going on than some people who had a more narrow background."

Future Politician Plans to Fight for Agriculture: A senior from LaGrange, Ga., Jake Jones is majoring in agricultural economics. He's been around agriculture all his life and wants to find some way to give back to the farmers and the farming culture that's given so much to him. To accomplish his goal, Jake hopes to become a state representative or other state official so that he can support Georgia agriculture at the policy-making level.

But for now he's satisfied supporting the College by helping out with recruiting efforts as an Ag Ambassador. "Primarily we're assistants and representatives of the College," Jake said. He says being an Ag Ambassadors has given him an opportunity to network with people in agricultural industries and further sharpen his leadership skills.

After graduation, Jake plans to intern with a member of the state legislature. Ideally, he would like to work on an agricultural committee. He also wants to get his real estate license.

Agribusiness Will Pay Her Bills: Kara Kirchoff is a freshman majoring in agribusiness and food science at UGA. After graduation, she wants to work for a firm like Golden State Foods, which supplies meat and other raw foodstuffs to McDonald's.

She decided to become a business major and pursue a degree in agribusiness. "I really like the agriculture side of business," she said. "And I knew it would help me the most in working for a company like Golden State.

"When I first got here I didn't know anyone in my classes because all my friends here graduated a year before me," Kara said. "But I met a group of people who were in all my classes because we were in the same major, and we've become pretty close. It's easy to get lost in some of your bigger classes, so it's nice to have a smaller group of people you can depend on for help."

  Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics
  Conner Hall
  Athens, Georgia 30602
  706-542-2481, Fax: 706-542-0739