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Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering

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Meet Maria Goshe: Agriculture All The Way

June 24, 2022
Maria Goshe, 2022 FABE Outstanding Senior, majoring in agricultural systems management

Outstanding Senior award recipient Maria Goshe came to The Ohio State University in the fall of 2020, and quickly realized she made the best choice. Maria continued her education from Terra State Community College where she received her associates degree while majoring in agribusiness management in May 2020. Maria’s freshman year of college, she was able to complete her first internship with Heritage Cooperative which is when she realized she wanted to learn more.

“It was an agronomy-based internship, so I primarily scouted fields, collected soil and tissue samples, things like that. That was the internship that really led me to continue my education.”

Maria started looking into agronomy and agricultural systems management (ASM) here at Ohio State and decided to stick with ASM.

Maria Goshe“I like the hands on aspect. I didn’t know if I wanted to fully go into agronomy, but I liked the variety that ag systems had to offer.”

Maria was also able to complete another internship with Heritage Cooperative at another location, this time focusing on grain operations. With this internship, Maria was able to gain experience grading grain, testing for vomitoxin, and operating track mobiles.

Since 2019, Maria has been employed with Tiffin-Farmers Cooperative out of Tiffin, Ohio. Through her position as a general laborer, Maria has been a part of some pretty big changes to the facility. Along with completing secretarial duties, earning her CDL, hauling grain and fertilizer, and making custom feeds, Maria was a major contributor to the addition of the drive thru service that was added in. 

“We took an old scale house that was used previously for storage on the property and turned it into a drive-thru for our customers. I designed the layout of the products and decided which products would be offered in the drive thru.”

Maria also jumped at the opportunity to add a touch of history to the project.

“I suggested that we incorporate a historical timeline to the side of the drive-thru so that when customers drove through, they would be able to learn about the history of the cooperative. It also proved to be a great opportunity to show how agricultural cooperatives add to the community.”

Throughout all her experiences, Maria has learned quite a bit. For other students, Maria suggests taking advantage of everything. 

“Take advantage of all the opportunities CFAES provides. Join clubs, go on trips and explore these other industries because those chances aren’t going to come around as often once your graduated.”

When she isn’t working on her family’s farm, she enjoys being outdoors, drawing, painting and being with friends. Maria does not have any plans set in stone for after college, but she intends to work at an agricultural grain cooperative.

 

By Eryn Oldham