Yankee Farm Credit participates every year, along with other Northeast ACAs, to sponsor the Farm Credit Fellows Program. We had 25 students attend the program this year: 9 from Cornell University, 10 from the University of Vermont and 6 from the University of Maine.

The objective of the program is to provide junior year college students interested in agriculture with an opportunity to learn more about finance and agribusiness.

The program includes several comprehensive and challenging opportunities:

• A two-day visit to a Farm Credit service provider and a Farm Credit office. On the first day, the students visit Farm Credit Financial Partners, Inc. in Agawam, Mass. where they are introduced to a wide range of topics, from the workings of the Farm Credit System to resume and interview training. Day two brings the Fellows to First Pioneer Farm Credit in Enfield, Conn. for an up close look at the day-to-day operations of a Farm Credit office.
• A three-day trip to New York City's financial institutions. Past visits included stops at Rabobank Nederland, Metropolitan Life Insurance, New York Stock Exchange, New York Mercantile Exchange, Farm Credit Funding Corporation and Salomon Smith Barney. This past year the students also visited Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center tragedy.
• Each Fellow also interns for one week in one of the four northeastern Farm Credit association offices. The interns participate in loan/lease underwriting and financial services. One former student says about her experience, "I expected a narrow view of simple loan processing. Instead I saw a wide range of services and also met many employees who gave me different perspectives about the loan process."

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