Prior Intern Projects

“I gained a much more meaningful understanding of business planning for an agricultural operation.  I became familiar with the many and diverse businesses being pursued by the Farm Business Planning Course's students, which was as much a learning experience for them as it was for me…”

Below is a partial list of prior intern projects:

Tufts Interns

Anna Mason, BA '19

Anna conducted an ethnography of a collection of past and current students of the New Entry farmer training curriculum. She sought to discover both what was most and least effective for new farmers in their learning, as well as what values were being consciously and unconsciously communicated in the classroom. This project also made use of the annual alumni survey that New Entry conducts to all people who have ever taken a NESFP workshop or course. Her findings were also meant to inform future surveys to improve their quality and result interpretability. Through her qualitative interviewing and subsequent transcript coding, she found there were questions about the challenges of viability in being a farm business owner in the Massachusetts area - with ever shrinking land opportunities, markets that demand niche and sustainably grown food, as well as limited resource availability, often times people have had to pivot their plans in order to make due. During her time with the New Entry farmer training team, Anna helped design and assist with curriculum delivery, conducted community outreach upon the NESFP location move to the North Shore, redesigned the annual alumni survey, and organized its past results.

Having the ability to combine my interests in adult technical education and sustainable farming in my internship was invaluable. I saw what it takes to make a small non-profit run, while at the same time having the freedom to design my own project for my undergraduate degree. I got hands-on experience in both the (literal!) field as well as the classroom, and identified my passions for storytelling during my ethnographic interviewing with New Entry’s alumni.”

Hannah Sobel, MS FPAN/MA UEP '15

Hannah assisted in researching and contacting potential CSA Food Hub partners and pick-up sites, wrote farmer profiles for the CSA newsletter, conducted CSA price research, and did data entry for yearly farmer surveys.

“I began to understand the beneficial role of a cooperative CSA in a farmer's life, as well as its role in the greater Boston community. New Entry's CSA model provides an incredible amount of support for those who are new to the U.S. and new to farming, while also reaching many people who might not otherwise have access to or be able to afford a CSA share. I enjoyed getting to know a few farmers who were all very appreciative of what New Entry had to offer.”

Ellen Schramm, MS AFE '14 

Ellen helped with the Farm Business Planning Course: preparing materials, assisting the course instructor and aiding students in completing their business plans.

 “I gained a much more meaningful understanding of business planning for an agricultural operation.  I became familiar with the many and diverse businesses being pursued by the Farm Business Planning Course's students, which was as much a learning experience for them as it was for me.  I was able to offer my knowledge of farm production practices, as well as, marketing, while they inspired me with their unique and creative ideas. Assisting New Entry in their mission to help new farmers realize their dreams was as important for its students as it was for my education of our modern agricultural landscape.”

Liana Przygocki MS FPAN ‘14

Liana helped coordinate livestock and poultry workshops and she helped compile resources for livestock and poultry farmers for an upcoming resource guide.

As a newcomer to Massachusetts, being involved with New Entry allowed me to connect with the agricultural community around me. I helped with a variety of events and projects and had opportunities to meet nearby producers. The highlight of my experience was helping organize a community poultry processing day, which gave me hands-on experience with poultry processing I certainly wouldn't have gotten anywhere else at Tufts!”

Meredith Epstein, MS AFE '13

Meredith was our graphic designer for educational and publicity materials, assisted with instruction of our online Farm Business Planning Course, and developed the Sustainable Agriculture Skills Workbook - a tool that helps beginning farmers outline and track their progress toward mastery.
“My time at New Entry was essential to my career development. I participated in a diverse set of projects that exposed me to many interesting paths and grew my network. I was able to distill everything I was learning in my academic life at Tufts into tangible programs and products that really help sustainable farmers. I am happy to still be involved at New Entry.”

Meaghan Overton, MA UEP '13

Meaghan worked with the National Incubator Farm Training Initiative (NIFTI) to write a guide to the planning and development of farm incubator projects. She gathered extensive data on farm incubator projects through surveys and case study interviews, co-authored the Farm Incubators: Lessons From the Field toolkit, and provided design assistance.

“Farm incubator projects are such an exciting model for new and beginning farmer development, and the growth in the number of farm incubators over the last decade has been incredible. Because so many farm incubators are relatively new, it is crucial to collect and share best practices gathered from projects across the country. I enjoyed working directly with NIFTI’s project partners and other farm incubator staff to learn first-hand about their challenges and successes in supporting new and beginning farmer development. I hope that the guide we developed will help farm incubator projects build strong, sustainable programs.”

Eva Agudelo, MS AFE ‘12

Eva was the teaching assistant for New Entry’s Farm Business Planning class for four cycles and had the opportunity to lecture and lead class discussions and activities on topics such as marketing, financial management, crop planning, record keeping, and risk management for small-scale sustainable farms. She also interned on New Entry’s incubator farm site, where she did weekly field scouting, led field trainings, and did basic farm maintenance. Additional work with New Entry included a directed study project on creating the Beginning Farmer Network of Massachusetts, a statewide network of service providers for beginning farmers.

My time as an intern at New Entry provided invaluable experience working on-the-ground with farmers in a service-oriented environment. I was able to hone my non-profit and organizational development skills, which was an excellent complement to the more abstract academic work of completing my degree. Teaching farmers in a classroom setting and in the field was both educational and extremely gratifying and has proved quite useful in my current professional career.”

Maura Schorr Beaufait, MS/MPH AFE '10

Maura assisted with classroom training of beginning farmers by preparing content for and conducting training classes for the classroom Farm Business Planning Course. Each New Entry beginning farmer student benefits from the well-developed materials and a fresh perspective that the interns bring to classroom training.  Maura also compiled the New Entry Farm Employment Directory, including our online resource of farms with employment opportunities for immigrants and other new farmers in Massachusetts. 

Angel Park, MS AFE '10

Angel is the creator of New Entry’s first blog. On a regular basis, Angel gathered news and information about New Entry and local agriculture to keep our blog current and engaging. Angel also assisted with World PEAS CSA by performing post harvest handling operations and helping with share packing and distribution.

Laura Hartz, MS AFE '10

Conducted hands-on field work, including weeding and mulching strawberries and transplanting raspberries.

Katie Cerretani, MS AFE '09

Katie contributed to a resource guide for beginning farmers in Massachusetts by developing fact sheets on a number of regulatory issues affecting farmers in the Commonwealth. She also helped collect recipes and other information to be used in weekly CSA newsletters.

Simca Horwitz, MS AFE '08

Simca prepared a plain language “Value Added Processing Guide”, to be used by low-literacy farmers. The guide is used by New Entry farmers, and distributed to other regional immigrant farming projects for use by their farmers. Simca also participated in New Entry's 2006-2007 classroom Farm Business Planning Course for beginning farmers as an instructor and by providing administrative support.

Vanessa Bittermann, MA UEP '07

Vanessa was responsible for packing and distributing shares to members of the CSA program. She also prepared the weekly CSA newsletter, which includes farmer profiles, recipes and coop news. Vanessa also assisted with preparation and sales at farmers markets. In addition, she broadened New Entry outreach efforts to connect with new farmers by posting PSA announcements in local media outlets. Vanessa has also created farmer -training materials for beginning farmers. She also created a Plain Language FSA Loan Application Guide for low-literacy farmers.

Other Interns

Noelle Fogg, Intern Summer 2013

Noelle expanded resources for New Entry's Beginning Farmer Network of Massachusetts, including writing profiles of successful MA farmers and New England-based farm service providers for the BFN/Mass website, as well as recruiting “guest authors” to write educational articles for the BFN/Mass blog. She also developed the website for the Farm Friendly Neighbor Campaign, a community‐targeted educational campaign focused on supporting local farms.

“Through extensive outreach to farmers and farm service providers throughout Massachusetts, I developed familiarity with many of the key players in local agriculture and have a much better understanding of what it takes to be a successful farmer in this region. I also have a deeper appreciation for the work of web developers!”

Munish Gandevia, UML Coop Scholar Program, Summer 2012

Munish coordinated the Low-income Distribution for the World PEAS Food Hub at the Lowell Farmers Market.  

“I was really fortunate to do a summer, community service co-op that got me on my feet and allowed me to be an active part of something great. I worked with Lowell’s Community Teamwork Inc. under the New-Entry Sustainable Farming Program and learned about one of the city’s great community services, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)….This work has been rewarding in more ways than I could have imagined. I got to work with helpful, happy and genuinely great people, and the work has shown me the various processes involved in CSA which applies directly to their business model. From coordinating with the farmers, the raw materials, to packing the vegetables, akin to the assembly process, to the final distribution process, I got to play a hand in all aspects of the trade.  My co-op helped me to make connections that will transcend a freshman internship, and that has made all the difference to me.”