2024 Women Changing the Face of Agriculture Event Announcement
The 2024 Women Changing the Face of Agriculture career exploration event will be held at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL on March 1, 2024. Registration for the event will open January 1, 2024.
Each school or organization is limited to 10 student registrants and 2 chaperone registration. Registration will close on February 16, 2023 or earlier if the maximum capacity of 600 students is met. To register for the event, please visit Registration – WCFA (womenchangingthefaceofagriculture.com) for more information. The event is still open to professionals of agricultural related careers to be exhibitors at our career exploration fair or as sponsors.
This year’s event puts an emphasis on hands-on activities that feature careers in engineering, soil health, tractor and equipment design and service, veterinary science and drone technology among several more. Each student will be able to select two hands-on sessions to attend. Each student will attend an entrepreneurial session featuring young women entrepreneurs. Finally, each attendee will get to select a career development session that will focus on skills to learn and lessons that will be learned as you pursue your passion in your career in agriculture, food and the environment.
Our event will feature career development speakers including Former Ms. West Virginia Elizabeth Lynch, Generational Speaker Cheryl Mitchell, and Bayer Brand Strategy Lead Kacy Perry. All attendees will hear from our young entrepreneurial speakers Alea Ogle from Blue Eyed Rascal Baking Co. and Peyton Lamps of Petals by Peyton. During our event, we will recognize scholarship recipients as well as other award winners during our program.
Women Changing the Face of Agriculture event was first held in 2010. In the last 13 years, more than $50,000 in scholarships have been awarded and more than 7,000 high school girls have attended. Gayle Baker, Illinois Agri-Women member and co-chair of the event has been involved in the event since 2015. She said, “A new location means new ideas and reviewing how we can meet our goal to show as many highschool women the range of career opportunities available in the area of agriculture, food, fiber, and fuel. Students learn best when they can get their hands dirty, touch and see what is possible. A lot of work was completed by the committee in partnership with our industry supporters to put together some great hands-on sessions. We can’t wait to see our event back at full capacity of 600 students!”.
Women Changing the Face of Agriculture is a project of Illinois Agri-Women (IAW) which showcases a career exploration event for young women interested in agriculture. This event strives to give women the opportunity to explore different career paths, interact with industry professionals, and receive accurate information first hand from women in agriculture. For more information visit WCFA – Interact, Learn, Network (womenchangingthefaceofagriculture.com).
