Learning on the Job

Nearly 100 miles from the nearest town, before most people have had their first cup of coffee, Grayson Downs is already driving dirt roads, headed for another day of his internship.

Out in the wide-open Texas Panhandle, Downs is not sitting in a classroom; he is managing cattle, monitoring feed and learning to make decisions on his own.

“I fully expected to go into this internship and make a little bit of money while learning a little bit about dairy cattle,” Downs said. “I thought that was the end of it, but I really grew as an individual.”

Experiences like Downs’ are not what most people imagine when they think of a college environment, but for students at Texas Tech University’s Davis College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, they are vital pieces to successful learning.

Certain majors require internships to graduate. Other programs in the college strongly encourage internships or allow students to substitute them with research or similar experiential learning opportunities.

According to 2025 data from Davis College, 45% of students complete a semester-long internship. Of those, 85.6% are paid, and nearly half resulted in a post-graduation job offer.

“An internship is one of the most impactful experiences a student can have,” said Erica Irlbeck, Ed.D., associate dean for outreach and engagement in Davis College. “It takes everything a student has learned in the classroom and helps them apply those things into a working-world setting.”

From dairy operations in West Texas to policy work in Lubbock and design firms along the Florida coast, internships are turning classroom preparation into career pathways and students into professionals.

On-Farm Experience

Downs, a junior animal science major, spent his summer in Hartley, Texas, interning with AgriVision, a family-run farm management company operating multiple large-scale dairy operations across the state. Over the course of three months, he worked with thousands of head of cattle and rotated through nearly every aspect of the operations, from milking parlors to herd health management. He was even given full responsibility for a research project analyzing feed intake in organic dairy calves.

“When you're in a high-stress situation where you're not being supervised in any way and you have to get something done, you have to figure out a way,” Downs said. “I had to be confident in my own abilities to get things done to a high degree.”

Downs said navigating language barriers with Spanish-speaking coworkers and adapting to high-pressure situations pushed him to grow both personally and professionally.

“I like being comfortable where I’m at,” Downs said. “But getting uncomfortable in those situations grew me a lot.”

Downs said even though dairy management may not be his long-term career path, his internship experience sparked a deeper interest in livestock nutrition and helped him build industry connections.

“If you don’t take advantage of the opportunities you’re given, you’re not going to grow,” Downs said.

Figuring it Out

While some Davis College students, like Downs, enter internships with a strong agricultural background, others start from scratch. With no ranching experience, Brance Bolden, a Texas Tech ranch management master's student, had to rely on determination.

A Mustang, Oklahoma native, Bolden joined Texas Tech’s new ranch management graduate program after getting a degree in agricultural systems technology from Oklahoma State University. He said despite not growing up in agriculture, he knew he belonged in the industry and was determined to leave an impact.

“I knew nothing, but I wanted it bad enough. I knew I was going to meet a lot of good people, and I think that’s worthwhile, Bolden said.

As part of the master’s program, Bolden completed an internship with a large-scale cattle operation, working first in Florida before transitioning to a second location in Waco, Texas.

“It was very big,” Bolden said of the Florida ranch. “It was very overwhelming. They gave me a horse and said, ‘This is your horse,’ and I told myself, ‘I’m going to figure this out.”

Bolden said one of the biggest challenges was stepping into a role where he was expected to learn by doing, often without prior experience.

“You don’t know what you don’t know, and it was hard to figure out,” Bolden said.

Over time, challenges such as learning to ride, navigating unfamiliar pastures and participating in branding helped him gain confidence in an industry that once felt entirely new.

“By the middle of the summer, I was starting to get it,” Bolden said. “I had more independence and responsibility.”

For Bolden, the internship was more than learning skills. It was about finding his place in an industry he once knew little about.

“This is an awesome opportunity,” Bolden said. “It helps build connections if you’re willing to go out there, get your hands dirty, and want it bad enough. It’s absolutely worth it.”

By connecting students with industry professionals and immersive learning environments, internships allow individuals from all backgrounds to develop the skills, confidence and relationships needed to get involved in the industry and succeed.

Connections That Shape Careers

For some students, those industry connections become the most valuable part of the experience.

Faith Geistweidt, a senior agricultural and applied economics major from Fredericksburg, Texas, interned with the National Sorghum Producers and the United Sorghum Checkoff Program in Lubbock, Texas, where her work spanned across both policy and industry outreach.

Geistweidt said she gained exposure to how research, advocacy and global trade intersect in an industry she once knew little about. Her work supported conversations with organizations such as the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office, connecting classroom knowledge to real-world impact.

Just hours into her first day, Geistweidt said NSP and USCP CEO, Tim Lust, tasked her with preparing briefing materials on phytosanitary policy, something she had never heard of before. 

“You never know who you’re going to meet, what you’re going to see, or what you’re going to get to do that’s going to shape the next 10 years of your life.”

“I didn’t even know what phytosanitary meant,” Geistweidt said. “So, I stayed up until 2 a.m. doing this research.”

After submitting her work, Geistweidt said she had to go back and correct mistakes identified in her briefing materials. The experience pushed her to adapt quickly in a fast-paced environment where mistakes are part of the learning process.

“[Lust] being able to show me the grace of, ‘Hey, this is what you did wrong, or this is incorrect, but this is how you fix it,’ was really eye-opening,” Geistweidt said. “That was really humbling to me because I haven’t seen that kind of two-way communication develop in such a short period of time.”

Geistweidt said the mentorship she received during her experience from industry leaders, including Lust, continued to guide her even beyond the internship.

“He was an excellent mentor to me throughout my time at NSP, but also as I’m deciding what I’m going to do in my future career,” Geistweidt said. “There’s not many people I feel like I can relate to on a real level who can give sound guidance, morally and ethically, and he’s one of those for me.”

For Geistweidt, like many students who complete internships, the hands-on learning experience opened doors to a new professional network.

Geistweidt encourages students to seek out these types of opportunities.

“You never know who you’re going to meet, what you’re going to see, or what you’re going to get to do that’s going to shape the next 10 years of your life,” Geistweidt said.

Designing a Perfect Fit

Senior landscape architecture major, Kollier Miller, spent his summer stepping out of his comfort zone and more than 1,500 miles from home. While completing his internship at the West Palm Beach, Florida office of Kimley-Horn, he lived six months with a host family he had never met. Even though he was surrounded by a completely new environment, he felt right at home drafting up designs for commercial, recreational and private spaces.

“I wanted to go somewhere fun I’d never been,” Miller said. “It was only six months, not anything permanent.”

Working just minutes from the beach, Miller spent his weekdays immersed in design work and his weekends exploring his new surroundings.

“It was so much fun because I’d never been to Florida before,” Miller said. “Being able to live like 15 minutes from the beach was awesome.”

The transition from Lubbock to South Florida meant adjusting to a different culture, climate and new people.

“Working a full-time job, I wasn’t able to meet as many new people,” Miller said. “One thing I noticed about myself is that I want to be around my friends.”

During his internship, Miller contributed to a variety of projects rather than focusing on just one. He revised project plans, collaborated with different teams, and worked in AutoCAD; a software used for precise drafting and modeling of architectural landscape designs. He said he felt prepared with foundational skills learned in the classroom, but the experience pushed him to apply that knowledge on a much deeper level.

“In college, they teach you the basics,” Miller said. “Getting there, I kind of knew how to do everything — it was the depth that I didn’t know it at.”

Miller said the experience gave him a clearer understanding of the scale, cost and complexity behind professional design work, which is difficult to fully grasp in a classroom setting.

Reflecting on his coursework, Miller compared the pace of classroom projects to real-world timelines.

“Here, when we work on imaginative projects, we’d get them done in three weeks,” Miller said. “There, it takes four years to get a project done.”

Toward the end of his internship, Miller got to assist with engineering-focused projects, an area he had initially considered before choosing landscape architecture as a major. Ultimately, the experience reaffirmed his decision.

“They were doing straight cut, no design,” Miller said. “Just lines and very dimensional things on the construction documents. We do that plus make it look pretty, and I like making it look pretty.”

Along with career clarity, Miller said he grew personally during his internship.

With graduation on the horizon, Miller said he has accepted a full-time position with the Frisco office of Kimley-Horn, where he can do what he loves while being close to friends.

Beyond the Classroom

Irlbeck said experiences like these highlight why internships are so valuable for Davis College students.

“If you go into an internship and do a good job, you have a strong opportunity to turn that into a full-time position,” Irlbeck said.

Beyond job offers, she emphasized that internships help students grow in ways that cannot always be taught in a classroom. Through hands-on coursework, student organizations and close interaction with faculty, Davis College plays a key role in preparing students to succeed when those opportunities arise.

“We consistently hear from employers, ‘Send us more Tech students,’” Irlbeck said. “They’re prepared, they’re professional and they’re ready to work.”

Irlbeck said she encourages every student to apply for internships, despite personal doubts about qualifications. She said just being willing to learn takes students a lot further than they could have ever imagined.

“Don’t ever take yourself out of the pool,” Irlbeck said. “Let the employer decide if you’re qualified.”