Since my senior year of high school, I knew that I wanted to one day get licensed and open my own cannabis farm. Most high schoolers do not even know what they want to do with their lives, but I did because I have seen how much the medicinal herb can help people with a variety of illnesses. I have learned this through family members sharing their experiences and by doing multiple research papers on the topic. From a young age, I knew I wanted to help people but I did not realize how until I was preparing to apply to college.
In the Fall of 2023, I enrolled in the University of Maryland's Institute of Applied Agriculture after jumping over many hurdles to get there. Originally I got deferred from the University of Maryland and was recommended to apply to the IAA. Then I had to figure out how I was going to pay for school. Even after facing challenge after challenge I never gave up because I knew if it was God's will for me to attend UMD I just had to have faith in him and I would make it there. After much prayer, reflection, and explanation I was admitted to the IAA and arrived at orientation in late June where I got to register for all my classes. I declared as an Agricultural Business Management major and did well in my first year ending with a 3.58 GPA and got an internship as a result of this and my strong interview where I could really focus on learning conventional farming practices. On the first day of my internship my supervisor, Guy Kilpatric, said “This summer will involve a lot of hard strenuous labor in extreme conditions, but I selected you guys out of all the applicants because I believe you are best suited for the tasks”.
I applied a lot of the concepts I learned in soils and fertilizers as well as handyman skills my father taught me and my own self-taught discipline, perseverance, and strength to my internship. I persevered on 95+ degree days through stringing and training tomatoes, driving steaks for the strings, harvesting crops, and doing other various outdoor tasks. The highlight of my days was getting to use farm mobile machinery such as tractors, mowers, rtv’s, and a skid steer.
Without Guy this would have never been possible, I really appreciate him for inviting me to join the team and providing me with the learning and working environment to help me progress towards my future career goals. These new skills have heightened my desire to pursue a career in agriculture and furthermore as a cannabis grower. I believe that the experience I gained from the internship will not only help me land a job on a cannabis farm when I turn 21 but also help in my classes this semester. I am taking a tractor class this semester and a class where I get skid loader certified so being already familiar with operating the machinery is going to help me a bunch when it comes to doing well in the tractor class and getting my skid loader certification. I also believe it will help me to open my own cannabis farm one day and when building my own house which is a personal goal of mine.
Overall, my favorite part of the internship was getting to operate and service mobile heavy machinery. I learned a lot about how hard conventional farming is and some tips on being a successful farm manager. I have also learned a lot that I can apply to my current classes and my professional career in the future as I inch closer to landing my first full-time job. My internship required a lot of hard work in the hot sun and I would not have it any other way. I still plan on pursuing my dream of opening my own cannabis farm and I know that my experiences at this internship will help me progress towards my goal.
