Wes Page, a manager for the national agricultural powerhouse Helena AGRI-Enterprises, is always on the lookout for motivated individuals to join the company — and he knows he can find them at the University of Delaware.

The UD-Helena connection began in 2019 when Page attended a career event sponsored by the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR). It was there that he met Mark Isaacs, associate professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences and director of the Carvel Research and Education Center in Georgetown. Issacs, who serves many roles for the college, including teaching, overseeing UD’s agricultural research station and mentoring summer interns, is the perfect faculty member to identify motivated students.

“When Mark recommends a student, it carries a lot of weight,” said Page, whose role includes recruiting for Helena internship program. He wants employees who fit into Helena's mission to offer scientific expertise, high-quality products and customized technical advice to farmers and growers. “Mark has provided us with really good candidates.”

Both men are keenly aware of the high demand for agriculture careers and seek to prepare students accordingly. Their efforts align with a United States Department of Agriculture report projecting a strong national demand to fill nearly 60,000 agriculture positions across a wide breadth of career opportunities. Leading that need are careers in food and biomaterials production, science and engineering, management and business. Expertise in precision agriculture is in high demand.

One of Helena’s most recent full-time hires is Aaron Doll, a class of 2024 agriculture and natural resources major. Based out of Helena’s Bridgeville, Delaware, location, Doll is an AGRIntelligence technician, Helena’s brand name for its precision agriculture services. 

“One of the reasons I chose to intern and work with Helena was because of their AGRIntelligence program, which utilizes precision agriculture features like drone and satellite imagery,” Doll said. 

Last summer, Doll met and shared insights with three fellow CANR students — Dominic Lopergolo, Jarrett Robinson and Carson Mears — during the first week of their internship, which kicked off with an orientation and training in South Carolina.

Mears, a junior agriculture and natural resources major, found the experience working alongside a branch manager invaluable.

“I was so eager to get in the truck and meet the farmers who he deals with on a daily basis,” Mears said. “I learned that it is not just what you say and recommend to the farmers, but also how much you listen. It is not about how much you sell, but more about creating a friendship and accomplishing a greater goal for each other.”

Robinson, a senior agriculture and natural resources major, also had a positive internship experience and started working for Helena after he graduated in December.  AGRIntelligence and sales were his primary focuses during the internship.

“Working in that field showed me that every detail is important. Being deliberate and concise in my findings and research was crucial for these growers and the company,” Robinson said. “The structure of Helena’s internship program is like no other. They make it clear they want to invest in your career and give you the tools to do so.”

Of the 300 interns hired since 2012, many are still with Helena. The company’s intern hire rate is about 60%, Page said.

“Helena is all about relationships and personal development,” Page said. “What we look for when hiring is asking ourselves will they fit into our culture and make those relationships internal as well as customer-based?” 

Working as an intern in both sales and AGRIntelligence, Lopergolo, a junior agriculture and natural resources major, shadowed techs as they met growers and scouted fields. 

“They always made sure that at the end of the day, I understood what they were telling me and that I was learning,” Lopergolo said. “I was able to make great relationships with all of them, and they were able to teach me more than I ever thought I would learn.”

Lopergolo said he was grateful for the internships his college cultivates for students.

“At UD, many professors in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resource do not just teach you in a class, but also try to communicate how and what we learn in class is used and observed in the real world,” Lopergolo said. “Dr. Isaacs played a key role — he understood the importance of an internship, and he would check in over the summer to make sure everything was going well.”