Nebraska Ag Connection - NCTA Dean's Weekly Roundup

Nebraska Ag News Headlines

NCTA Dean's Weekly Roundup
By: Ron Rosati, Ph.D., Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture - 12/13/2018

It's finals week at the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture! Students have wrapped up their final projects, studied hard for the past few weeks and are now seeing the rewards of their efforts as they take their final exams.

Most students come through finals week feeling the intense satisfaction that comes from a job well done. It's rewarding for students to experience the accomplishment that comes with completing a successful semester.

For those who are graduating, this is their final semester at NCTA. We wish 12 mid-year graduates all the best for 2019 and the new year ahead of them. Fulltime careers await some as job offers are locked in for their agricultural or veterinary technical endeavors. Bravo, Aggie graduates!

For some of our new NCTA alumni they are going into production agriculture at their home farms or ranches, or as employees with agricultural enterprises including feedlots, cattle operations or diversified ag. Stay in touch with your alma mater, alumni, and keep us posted on your careers.

A handful of students are headed to four-year programs at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln at mid-year and will pursue majors in agronomy, animal science or other ag-related degrees at the UNL College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. We congratulate them, as well, and we know we'll be following their collegiate endeavors with great interest.

A hearty congratulations to Dr. Tiffany Heng-Moss who was named as the next dean of UNL's College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. She has been the CASNR interim dean since 2017 when Dr. Steve Waller retired as dean.

As NCTA Dean, I have had the privelage to work with Dean Heng-Moss in many capacites on our collaborations between NCTA and CASNR.

Her leadership at CASNR includes the transfer programs between the two institutions, as well as the CUSP -- CASNR Undergraduate Scholars Program with international students from Rwanda.

Dr. Mike Boehm, University of Nebraska vice president who has direct oversight of NCTA, made the announcement of CASNR's dean on Dec. 10.

Congratulations to Dean Heng-Moss from all of us at NCTA!

Aggie students (and faculty) recently had outstanding opportunities to gain insight from peers, industry leaders and Nebraska agriculturists during the Nebraska Cattlemen convention in Kearney.

NCTA had 22 students involved in one or more of several events - Cattlemen's College, educational forums and NC discussions, the NC Foundation Luncheon, and the finale at the annual banquet.

The Collegiate Cattlemen club joined the NCTA Livestock Judging Team for a group photo with Joan Ruskamp, UNSTA alumna and chairman of the national Cattleman's Beef Board.

Joan and her husband, Steve, who are both Aggie alumni from Curtis, operate a diversified farm and feedlot near Dodge, Nebraska.

Dr. Doug Smith, chair of the NCTA animal science and agricultural education division, stepped into a leadership role as he is the new chair of the NC Education Committee. Thank you, Dr. Smith!

All five campuses of the University of Nebraska system will be closed for student and staff holiday from Dec. 24-Jan. 1.

The "shut down" ends after the New Year when business offices will re-open in preparation for the next semester. Students will return to NCTA for classes which resume on Jan, 7.

Happy holidays, everyone! And, congratulations to our graduates (some who will return for commencement next May)!

Other Nebraska Headlines