Concordia University reps present ag science program to Imperial

Representatives from Concordia University were in Imperial Tuesday to promote their new agricultural sciences program.
The three representatives, Kurth Brashear, Dr. Dennis Brink and Megan Vieselmeyer—a Holyoke, Colorado native—hosted a dinner at Zion Lutheran Church in Imperial to meet with the public and educate about the new program.
“We want (Chase County) to know about Concordia broadly, but also about this new ag science program that we started in 2019,” Brashear said.
The program is one of only two four-year ag programs in the state.
“(Concordia has) been in Nebraska for 125 years, but we don’t really claim to know ag,” Brashear said. “The way we really started this is we just invited different parts of the industry to come to campus for a day, saying we would like to have you come and we want to float an idea in front of you and kind of get your feedback.”
Their guests suggested creating a program that gives students an understanding from field to table of how ag works, then giving those groups a chance to have internships with the students while they’re still in school.
Which is how the program was born.
Brashear, Brink and Vieselmeyer are visiting communities and high schools across the state to promote the program.
The bachelor’s degree is more than a “general ag” program, Brink said.
“I like to think it’s more of an integrated or combined ag program,” he said.
Brink, who taught animal science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for 40 years, in coming out of retirement to help start this unique program.
“(Brink) is well-regarded and known in Nebraska, particularly amongst the cattle industry,” Brashear said.
Concordia’s program is a combined program of plant science, animal science, agribusiness and food science.
“And it starts from the beginning,” Brink said. “So rather than take an introductory animal science class or an introductory plant science class, students will take food, animal and crop production science.
“It’s unique and new,” he added, “and it’s really new to Nebraska, but it’s also new in our approach that we can take being in a small, rural community like Seward with ag folks that want to talk to our students.”
Students in the program will also take part in a “micro internship” while taking classes, giving them experience, but also helping the ag producers.
At a recent career fair, one of Brink’s students talked to ag producers, who interviewed him on the spot and offered him a summer internship.
“I got an email a few days later asking if I had anymore kids like him,” Brink laughed.
“If we do this right by connecting with the professionals in agriculture, which is one of the goals of our first class, then they can see some of these opportunities that they may not have seen before and then we get started developing the program,” he added.