MADISON — Lauren Baker: The role of women in agriculture, we’re visiting today with Jessica Pralle, student and current president of the Association of Women in Agriculture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and I’m Extension intern, Lauren Baker. Jessica, can you tell us a little bit about what the Association of Women in Agriculture actually is?
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Jessica Pralle: So the Association of Women in Agriculture was brought about here at UW-Madison to advance the education of women in agriculture and actually our purpose really focuses on what the Association of Women in Agriculture wants and that’s to help members prepare for a career in agriculture and agricultural related fields because we are very diverse. To aid women in agriculture in achieving their goals by improving the communication among agriculture and then just for the general betterment of women in agriculture.
Lauren Baker: Jess, you touched on how AWA helps women prepare for a career in agriculture can you tell us how AWA does this?
Jessica Pralle: So right now we’re catering to 94 members and we have backgrounds from farm, to non-farm city girls with a diverse background of majors so what we’re doing right now is sharing our agriculture story. That’s kind of how we start to connect with sisters and then from there we really focus on our three pillars which are service, social, and professionalism. We do a lot of things to give back to our community because we know how important that is to have support as women in agriculture.
Lauren Baker: So, Jess can you tell us how AWA is spreading the story of agriculture?
Jessica Pralle: Yeah, so right now we actually have the campaign going called “share your agriculture story” and we really have been social media because we know how important it is to share our story not only among ourselves but to the general public. We have girls sharing just a little bit about their background, what excits them, what is important about agriculture just kind of their little spin how agriculture has grown them.
Lauren Baker: How do you think the role of women in agriculture is changing?
Jessica Pralle: It’s definitely changing because that was a highly driven male workforce. And now, the nurturer and the communicator and the steward has really come out in women so now seeing them take on bigger roles. Now can stand and mirror to mirror with our male counterparts.
Lauren Baker: If people are interested in learning more about AWA or joining, where should they go for more information?
Jessica Pralle: So, the Association does have a website and it’s AWAmadison.org or you can just in google and type in AWA at UW-Madison and that will pull up our website and that can help you and there will be contact information to source you back to active members in AWA.
Lauren Baker: We’ve been visiting today with Jessica Pralle, student and current president of the Association of Women in Agriculture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and I’m Extension intern, Lauren Baker.
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