APHIS Career Experience Program

 

APHIS' Career Experience (ACE) Program aims to attract the best and brightest college talent into various disciplines within APHIS. Students who intern with APHIS will be hired as part of a cohort. This cohort will support your development and offer you various engagement and development opportunities throughout your experience. These can include group assignments, learning events, meetings, webinars, or other activities designed to enhance your professional growth and skill levels throughout the duration of the program.

A few things to keep in mind — you must:

• Have completed at least 60 credits (This is a qualifier for the GS-4 level.)
• Work at least 16 hours per week during the school year (The exact schedule is negotiable depending on the student’s academic schedule.)

The search for ACE interns will pull from many disciplines to support scientific, administrative, and other professional careers. The official announcement will be posted on USAJobs.gov in the next few days and will contain more specifics. Interested students should visit USAJobs.gov and create their profile today, and then set up a search for APHIS Pathways opportunities. Also, stay tuned for more details and the upcoming announcement.

For tips on creating a USAJobs profile, check out this article: USAJOBS Help Center | How to create a profile. To set up an APHIS search and automatically receive internship and employment postings, see USAJOBS Help Center | How to search by keyword.

For more information about APHIS, visit our Careers site.

APHIS Internship and Job Opportunity

 

Are you interested in an exciting and rewarding career supporting the health of animal agriculture? Do you enjoy working as part of a team? The Daniel E. Salmon Internship Program might be the right fit for you!

As an intern in the administrative series, you will perform a variety of clerical tasks, such as validating and processing documents, assembling information, preparing reports, and gathering data. Additionally, you may be asked to produce documents, such as spreadsheets, correspondence, reports, performance contracts, job aids, and manuals.

As you learn and develop in this position, your duties will grow with you. If you successfully complete the program, your internship may be converted to a permanent position.

This is a fantastic opportunity to contribute to the security of America’s food supply and animal health. Are you interested? Take the first step and apply today!

Learn about the many benefits of working with us at

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/careers

Win up to $2000 in less than 3 weeks -- Enter the AgEnterprise Challenge!

The Ag sector has several opportunities and challenges that need to be explored and addressed. How do we repurpose former ag production facilities? How do we create value-added enterprises without a large startup capital? AGNR has partnered with MidAtlantic farm credit to explore some of the biggest challenges the agricultural sector currently faces. We believe that students have the potential to address these challenges. That is why we are inviting all students, regardless of major, background, or expertise, to learn, brainstorm, develop solutions, and make some cash while solving one of the biggest environmental challenges in the United States. There is no prerequisite to be a part of this challenge, just a willingness to do good for the environment and the world.

Who is this challenge for?
Everyone! All UMD students are invited. We also encourage students from other disciplines to join the challenge. To solve most of the issues we face, we will need a diverse group of students to share their knowledge, creativity, and expertise.

What do I need to do?
First, click here to Register. We encourage students to form teams; however, students can register as individuals and find other individuals to join them.
We will be using Facebook groups as an interaction platform between students, experts, and mentors. If you are not on Facebook, please sign up just for this challenge.
While some of the information will be provided, we encourage you to do additional research to understand the challenge topic once it is introduced.

How does this work?
This challenge will run for three weeks. In the first week, all participants will receive information about the challenge. They will attend a virtual introductory session to learn from and ask the experts questions concerning the challenge. The students will also be invited to engage and participate in the Facebook group. In the second week, the students will attend a Q&A session and engage with experts to develop solutions to the challenge. In the final week, students will develop video presentations to submit to a panel of judges who will select the winners.

The winners will be awarded as follows:

• 1st Place - $2000
• 2nd Place - $1000
• 3rd Place - $500

What time is required?
We estimate three to five hours per week. The program schedule is going to be flexible. The only mandatory sessions will be the Introductory and Q&A sessions. These sessions will be held after regular class hours.

This is a wonderful opportunity for you to learn something new and go through the process of creative problem-solving. After this challenge, you will have several opportunities to connect with potential employers and sponsors for your projects. We will also provide additional resources for the winning teams to continue working on their projects. All you need to do is join with an open mind.

Lemelson - MIT Student Prize

The Lemelson-MIT Student Prize honors promising collegiate inventors around the country. 

The Student Prize is open to teams of undergraduate students and individual graduate students who have technology-based inventions in categories that represent significant sectors of the economy: healthcare, food/water and agriculture, transportation and mobility, and consumer devices and products.

Initial Application Deadline: Friday, September 25, 2020 at 11:59pm ET

The 2021 Student Prize application is now open. All updated details about the 2021 eligibility requirements and application process are listed at https://lemelson.mit.edu/studentprize

2020 AgEnterprise Challenge!

Want to help our planet through agriculture, natural resources, and environmental sustainability? Enter today to meet like-minded people from industry and win $30K of funding and support. We invite you to participate in the 2020 AgEnterprise Challenge! The deadline for registration is Nov. 24. 

AgEnterprise Challenge is an initiative of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (AGNR) to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, and commercialization in agriculture, natural resources, and environmental sustainability. The AGNR AgEnterprise Challenge concludes on Mar. 26 during the AGNR Student Discovery and Innovation Expo, where participants will have the opportunity to give oral and visual presentations to a panel of judges. Teams will compete for various cash prizes, including up to $30,000 in funding and acceptance into the F3Tech Accelerator program. 

Benefits:

• Mini-Grant: Up to $500 for customer discovery
• Online Training Program: Fundamentals of entrepreneurship
• Targeted Mentorship: One on one mentorship with startup/industry expertise
• Personalized Workshops: Dingman Center, Mtech, Do Good Institute, The Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and UM Ventures 
• Funding to Scale: Win up to $30,000 in the final Expo
• F3Tech: Viable ventures will gain acceptance into F3Tech's accelerator program
• Fellowship Program: Surround yourself with like-minded entrepreneurs, every day
• Networking:  Connection to DC/MD/VA regional agricultural innovation ecosystem 

Eligibility:

The Challenge is open to students who are currently enrolled in a degree or lower-division certificate program at the University of Maryland, College Park. We encourage each participant to have at least two or more members, with at least one of them—preferably the lead member—currently enrolled in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (AGNR) or the Department of Entomology in the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS).

If you are interested but do not have an idea, please contact Cedric Nwafor: nnwafor@umd.edu to explore opportunities to join a team.

For additional information, visit https://agnr.umd.edu/student-opportunities/agenterprise-challenge  

The Ag Enterprise Challenge

Do you have an innovative idea for a new agriculture, natural resources, or sustainability business? Compete for $5,500 in cash awards by registering today for The AgEnterprise Challenge!

The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources has once again partnered with the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship and the Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship to hold this annual student competition. Teams of 1-10 students can register by filling out the online Registration Form available at go.umd.edu/UNW [case sensitive] no later than November 5, 2018. 

Registered teams will be required to attend a fun, hands-on workshop on November 14, 2018. In the Semi-Final Round, members of the Agriculture Innovation to Commercialization (AgI2C) Committee will review teams' business pitch presentations (with speaker notes) and 200-word descriptions. Finalist teams will be required to attend a second workshop on February 6, 2019. In the Final Round, teams will deliver their business idea pitches in front of a panel of distinguished judges and live audience in February 2019. 

Additional details are available at go.umd.edu/UNW [case sensitive]. If you have questions, please email agi2c@umd.edu.