Chris Schaefer, senior, Victoria, Minn.

Eric Ollila, AgBio Communications

Chris Schaefer

Leading Today and Tomorrow

As an infant, senior agronomy major Chris Schaefer wasn’t nurtured on a farm. At age eight, he didn’t earn a blue ribbon at the county fair. At age 12, he didn’t get up long before sunrise every day to feed livestock. At age 16, he wasn’t pondering a future opportunity to take over a family farm operation. But at age 21, Schaefer is an exemplary student of agriculture, a South Dakota State University College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences student leader and peer mentor, and a part of the future of agriculture in America.

As a youth, Schaefer helped on an uncle’s small dairy operation near his hometown of Victoria, Minn., a town of 4000 about 27 miles southwest of Minneapolis. “I spent a lot of time (at the dairy),” said Schaefer. “And that’s what got me interested in agriculture.”

When it came time to choose a university, Schaefer said he was focused on agronomy, and SDSU’s reputation in that field helped him make the decision to leave Minnesota and go west. “I toured a few universities in the area, and I’d received a reference that South Dakota State University had a really good program in agronomy,” he said. “When I left (from SDSU, after his first visit), I told my dad, ‘You know, this is a nice place.’ I felt at home.”

Schaefer said one of the things he was looking for in a university was the encouragement and support that allow a student to excel, and he found that at SDSU. “The people I met were friendly and willing to help and interested in me,” he said. “That’s something that you want: somebody that’s going to better you as a student. The other places I went, I just didn’t have that feeling.”

Perhaps Schaefer’s career at SDSU validates his early feelings about the university; he has an unbroken string of Dean’s list honors, an impressive record of volunteering and peer and community leadership, and a ledger of scholarships and honors. Of particular note, Schaefer has served:as a student research assistant in the Plant Science Department (2005-present); as an Introductory Soils Lab teaching assistant (Spring 2007); as a senator (2006-07) and vice president (2007-08) of the SDSU Student Association; as an ABS College ambassador (2006-07); as vice president of Students of Agronomy, Soils, and Environmental Sciences (2006-07); as president (2006) and member (2004-07) of Agronomy and Conservation Club; and as an ABS College student mentor (2006-07). In addition, he has been the recipient of the James D. Curry Scholarship (2005), the Crop Science Society of America Golden Scholarship (2006), the CHS Foundation: Agriculture of America Scholarship (2006), and the Richard L. Elliot Scholarship (2006). He has also made a mission trip to New Orleans (2006) and an academic trip to West Africa as part of an International Experience class (2007).

Zeno Wicks III, a professor of both plant science and statistics, said he considers Schaefer to be the “absolute tops” of the students he has worked with in his 27 years at SDSU. “The greatest part about him is his intellectual curiosity,said Wicks. He’s truly interested in what he’s doing.”

Schaefer’s scholarly interests have changed since he began his academic career at SDSU. He said that what had been a broad focal point became more defined as challenges and opportunities were met and overcome, and he now has a great interest in maize (corn) genomics. “The possibilities (within the field of maize genomics) are endless,” he said.

Internships fueled much of Schaefer’s interest in the building blocks of corn. Following a summer 2005 internship at a co-op in Cologne, Minn., his summer 2006 internship was with Crow’s Hybrids Corn Company, and this position allowed him to learn more about the needs, wants, and perspectives of individual growers. “I’m not from a farm, so the Crow’s Hybrids internship gave me a better idea of what farmers are thinking and how they make decisions,” he said.

His third internship, which he completed in August 2007, brought him into the University of Missouri’s Maize Functional Genomics lab and allowed him to participate in research involving western corn rootworm and corn genetics. “That research is important to farmers for crop protection. And that’s something I want to get back into,” Schaefer said. “But I want to work more with the grower, too.”

Schaefer credits the ABS College for giving him the tools necessary to develop, refine, and focus his academic and professional aspirations. “The agronomy program does a very good job of preparing students,” he said. “I’ve talked to a number of employers that are excited to come to SDSU because they are confident in the students we have here, both for internships and for hiring.”

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Chris Schaefer, senior, Victoria, Minn.