Our latest Featured Bucky Intern is Jens Arneson. He is a senior majoring in Soil Science-Turf Grass Management and Scandinavian Studies. He interned this summer with Bioforsk-Norwegian Agricultural and Environmental Research. He is from Stoughton, Wis. and has been interested in golf and his Norwegian heritage his entire life.
Q: What did you do to find an internship opportunity?
A: When I first came here to the UW, I talked to my advisor to make sure that at some point in my college career I would get an opportunity to do something related to turfgrass over in Norway. We began planning and waited to see what connections would provide the most practical education so I could get the most out of my experience.
Q: What did finding an internship teach you about searching for a full time position?
A: It taught me that trying to be ahead of schedule is the best thing you can do. Start searching early and getting the pieces in place well ahead of time. This will increase your chance of getting an internship or job because it shows a drive and determination towards a goal, which both employers and places you are trying to intern value very highly.
Q: What type of student organization experiences did you pursue to enhance your resume and help improve your professional skills?
A: I have been involved in the Badger Turf and Grounds Club since I started here, which allowed me to see what other students had done for their internships, giving me great ideas for how to approach looking for one. It also allowed me to take a leadership role, which translated into taking responsibility and advancing myself as a leader. I have also been active in the Collegiate FFA Chapter, which has given me even more leadership experience and an opportunity to work with the CALS Student Council to better understand how our CALS government works from the inside.
Q: What did you do during your internship?
A: Throughout the summer I got a chance to work firsthand on the research trials that were being conducted at the turfgrass facility. This includes all aspects of mowing, topdressing, collecting clipping/water/soil samples, registering plots, turfgrass establishment, fertilizing and spraying. I also was allowed to go to different golf courses and soccer fields in Norway and help diagnose problems that they were having and offer solutions. The facility I worked for hosted the European Turfgrass Association’s annual conference, where I assisted in setting up our facility for a field day and helped out with the speakers during the education portion of the conference.
Q: In what way was your internship valuable to your professional development?
A: Superintendents make decisions based on scientific data and research trials, so now I have a firsthand knowledge of how these trials are done and what the data means. I also have more experience diagnosing diseases and problems on courses, then relaying the information to the superintendents and the greens committees that oversee how the course is being run. This will help me in documenting what is happening on my course, assessing how to react to what is happening and making an informed decision on how to fix the problems.
Q: What was the most important thing you learned at your internship?
A: I think the most important thing is truly understanding how much effort is put forth into doing turfgrass research, and really trying to get the most out of reading their reports that are released. It seems that too often people dismiss these trials when they are full of pertinent information that can be very valuable to you as a superintendent.
Q: Do you feel your internship experience was important to your career development? Is so, why?
A: I feel it was very beneficial to my career development because anytime you get a chance to work intensely with a particular plot, you notice the most subtle changes. This allows you to be ahead of certain pathogens and seeing if your fertilization and watering regimes are effective. Also, when applying for the internship, I got experience in applying for a position, which will be important when applying for jobs once I graduate.
Q: Who do you feel helped you the most in your professional development and why?
A: There were two people who helped me the most in this process. First, was my Soils advisor, Dr. Doug Soldat, who helped me make the first connections. He allowed me to plan my whole experience so I could gain real-world experience in this adventure. I had to make a schedule and budget, and find funding for the project, which are valuable skills to have in the future. Second, was Dr. Trygve Aamlid of Bioforsk, who I stayed and worked with while in Norway. Once I got used to how things operated at their facility, he was always willing to let me try new machinery, help collect data and really expand my knowledge of how turfgrass research is done. He also let me experience the different golf courses in Norway, which allowed me to catch a glimpse of how different superintendents handle running courses and gain as much knowledge as possible in the different styles of golf course management.
