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Alexa McCarthy picked a halfway point between East Lansing and her hometown of Fort Meyers, Florida, for her summer internship. She spent the summer in St. Louis, Missouri, working as an intern for Monsanto, one of the nation’s largest agricultural sales and research companies.
Throughout the summer, McCarthy, who is double majoring in Journalism and Arts and Humanities, worked as a stakeholder outreach intern. She worked on community projects that focused on turning around Monsanto’s controversial reputation.
“It’s figuring out how to talk to people about really complicated things,” McCarthy said. “Only 1 percent of America lives on a farm. No one knows farmers these days, so how do you connect people to farmers?”
Through her work, McCarthy helped to build relationships between average consumers, food bloggers and Monsanto. The goal was to teach the public more about the company.
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“Monsanto is a very big company, but I think they’re out there for the greater good of farmers,” McCarthy said. “And I hope in five years, everyone I was working with, I hope their goals are met.”
Even though Monsanto is huge, McCarthy said she often felt like she was working at a startup, since the initiatives were so new to the company.
“Big companies can do a lot of good people don’t give them credit for,” McCarthy said. “As I grew older, I became more passionate about our food system and what Monsanto and other people are doing to help better the world.”
McCarthy found the internship in a roundabout way. Her father works as a plant breeder for Monsanto, and McCarthy follows one of his colleagues on Twitter. McCarthy saw a tweet about the internship and immediately applied.
When she found out she got the job, McCarthy set out looking for housing. She eventually found a sublease on Craigslist. Even though she didn’t know anyone else in St. Louis, she loved living in Delmar Loop. She said it helped her to become more independent.
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“It’s tough, but you can make it work. It’s so worth it,” she said.
McCarthy said her internship helped her to become more confident in her abilities.
“I’m more comfortable with knowing I have no idea what’s going to happen a year from now,” McCarthy said. “(At Monsanto) I was writing and copy editing and being creative around topics that are very scientific and using my communication and design skills on real topics. I can make difficult information semi-easy to understand.”
McCarthy currently is the sports news director at IMPACT 89FM, and she also works as a consultant in a media lab on campus. She’s also interned at Lansing’s City Pulse.
By Kelsey Block, Journalism and Arts and Humanities double major
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