Bakersfield College hosted the 3rd annual Agriculture Career Expo for students majoring in agriculture and students in high school considering the agriculture pathway at BC on Oct. 19. “It helps you open up doors and meet new people. Also, you get to learn more about the company. You can start to look to work for them and the information is good,” Samuel Ontiveros, a sophomore at BC, said.

 Companies like Grimmway Farms, Wonderful Pistachios, and Califia Farms attended the career expo to show students what they offer in the field.

During the expo companies were handing out their products, for example Grimmway Farms handed out carrots and pens and Califia Farms was handing out free vegan yogurt and coffee. 

“The first year that we put this event together it was just the workshops, to introduce the different programs. The second year is when we brought the career fair and the employers,” Trinidad said. 

“I am out here with Grimmway Farms as far as recruiting options we have a lot of internships available. I know a lot of students out here are looking for more of an internship program. We do offer full time positions, but we have a variety of internships as far as business and agriculture” Maria Castro, a former BC student who works with Grimmway Farms now, said. 

Universities also attended the expo to recruit students to their agricultural programs. 

One university that participated in this event was Cal Poly Breanna Barker and Teagan Ehlers represented the CAFES (College of Agriculture, Food & Environmental Sciences) program that is at Cal Poly.

“We have all of the degree and department brochures here and are talking about all of the degrees you can come to CAFES for. We are just here talking about transferring in,” said Barker. 

The goal for the career expo is to connect students to the agriculture programs at BC and with the industries that hire for specific programs, Domenica Trinidad, the coordinator of the expo, said.