People/Intern Alumni - Clifford E. and Melda C. Snyder Research & Extension Farm - Rutgers Center for Sustainable Agriculture

[New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station]

People

Previous Student Interns and Careers

[Bonos] Stacy Bonos. Assistant Professor in Turfgrass Breeding at Rutgers University, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

Stacy, a pharmaceutical researcher, came to Snyder Farm looking for a career change. A summer internship put her in a new field, literally. Stacy researched ways to renovate school athletic grounds. "We had to do it in the summer when the kids weren't in school, but that's a bad time to grow new grass," she said. She made it work and was inspired to earn a doctorate in turfgrass science at Rutgers. Her current research on disease resistant and stress tolerant grasses may mean future lawns will thrive with less fertilizer, pesticides and water.

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Rob Davis. Managed Natural Grasses at Giants Stadium.

Rob interned at the farm for two summers, in ’90 and ’91. He was influenced most by the challenges and the diversity of work in those early years. His experiences as a student intern provided him with strong practical problem solving experience, helping him to develop a career in athletic field turfgrass management. One of his positions involved the management of natural grass for the Meadowlands Stadium, hosting two professional football teams and World Cup soccer for several seasons.

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Tara Hausaman. Enforcement Officer, USDA, Newart Airport and Newark Seaport.

As a Snyder Farm intern, Tara worked closely with research scientists to find fruit and vegetable varieties that would thrive in New Jersey's climate. Tara's task was stopping insects from chewing up the experiments. This work earned her a pesticide applicator's license and set her on a career path with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. As a USDA Enforcement Officer, Tara inspects cargo and ensures that damaging pests do not enter the country.

Michele Lavigne received support from the Snyder Loan Fund from her freshman year of college through her first year of graduate school. The Snyder Loan Fund allowed her to pursue an undergraduate career at Hampshire College in Western Massachusetts.

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Sandra LaVigne came to Snyder Farm as an intern in her junior year. She is a returning college student with a background in the medical field. The Snyder Farm advanced her knowledge in areas of resource conservation and production of sustainable agricultural products. She plans to apply her intern experiences to a career as an environmental scientist.

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rainey Tadhgh Rainey. Director, Mosquito and Vector Control, Hunterdon County.

Tadhgh had a college degree but no career goal. At Snyder Farm he helped coordinate a black fly control "Gnat" project. He recruited and trained college students to use integrated pest management techniques to monitor the "Gnat" population. A few months later he was back to Rutgers University for a Masters Degree in entomology and then to Hunterdon County where he studies and controls ticks, flies, mosquitoes, and other insects so they won't become pests. Tadhgh is using all his training in New Jersey's fight against West Nile Virus and Lyme Disease. "The Snyder Farm internship steered me directly into my career."

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Katie Moore received a loan for the four years at Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and is in her senior year. She is planning to work in the field of Plant Protection.

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Robert Shortell. Rob was a student intern at Snyder Research Farm working under the direction of Dr. John Grande, developing experiments on best management practices for late season turfgrass seeding addressing school football field renovations. Upon graduation he was accepted into the Ph.D. Program at Rutgers Graduate School to study under Dr. Stacy Bonos in turfgrass breeding and genetics. Rob is in the final stages of his degree and is writing his dissertation. He is planning a career in academia where he can one day inspire the professionals of tomorrow.

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Andrew Wedel. Farm Equipment Inventor.

Andrew worked at the Snyder Farm during the summers of 1990 - 1992. His time at Snyder Farm taught him not only to think like a researcher, but also learn how to run a project both operationally in the field as well as financially.

Following graduation with a BS in Ag Engineering from University of Delaware in 1992, he began a MS program in Ag Engineering at Michigan State (completed 1995). There a system for separating and recycling bedding sand from dairy manure was developed, for which three patents are held. The Sand-Manure Separation technology was licensed to McLanahan Corporation in Hollidaysburg, PA, for whom he is now employed as the General Manager.

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