Gorzney is Thomson-Borlaug intern

CRESCO - Amanda Gorzney is becoming a familiar face around Cresco, as she serves as the Thomson-Borlaug intern for 10 weeks this summer.

Gorzney plans to be at the Mighty Howard County Fair this week at the Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation table in the Historic Preservation Center. 

“I found this internship on the Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences scholarship website,” she said. “I was immediately interested because throughout high school and college I learned a little bit about Norman Borlaug, and I am interested in pursuing an international career in development. I figured this was right up my alley, working with food security,” she said.

Gorzney is a student at Iowa State University and is majoring in Global Resource Systems and Agricultural Communication.

Since coming to Cresco for the internship, Gorzney has worked to update the Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation’s Facebook page with a set of new weekly posts to engage readers.

“I post three times a week; Monday is ‘Member Monday,’ when I do an interview with a board member; ‘Wonder Wednesday’ has a theme of, ‘’I wonder what is happening at the Borlaug farm?’; and ‘Fun Fact Friday’ is what people seem to look forward to the most. I recently posted about how Borlaug’s childhood home was purchased through a Sears catalog and a lot of people commented, saying they hadn’t known that.”

She said she got the idea from her major.

“I’m an ambassador for Global Resource Systems and we decided to do committees this year. I got on the social media committee, so I helped found that from scratch,” she said. 

Gorzney was also involved in the recent Borlaug Farm Dialogue. She hopes to continue to spread the word about Borlaug and his work in numerous ways: 

“At the fair, I want to have some buttons or business cards promoting our foundation. We have talked about generating a newsletter. One of my majors is agricultural communications, so a newsletter is right up my alley. We hope to have a neighborhood picnic at some point,” Gorzney said.

She has enjoyed a variety of aspects of her internship so far.

“We hosted some seventh grade students from West Fork. I enjoyed that, and they are interested in learning more about Norman Borlaug. They liked all of the antiques on the farm.”

Gorzney has had a long-term interest in agriculture.

“I want to work in international development and hopefully do some nutrition education. I grew up in Calamus, Iowa, on an acreage outside of town. Both of my parents had grown up on farms but decided not to continue (in agriculture). We have a couple of cows and are kind of getting back into it; it’s been fun. I was able to experience farming through my grandparents on my mom’s side. Her parents still had a farm and livestock throughout most of my childhood.”

Her interest in agriculture continued in school.

“In junior high, our school is required to offer a semester of agriculture classes; I decided to continue on, joined FFA and became passionate about the industry,” she said. 

For more information on the Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation, visit their Facebook page or Instagram account and be sure to look for Gorzney at the Mighty Howard County Fair this week.

If you have the opportunity to visit with Gorzney at the Mighty Howard County Fair, take it. You might learn something!