Conyers, GA |

The days of agriculture being known as just sow, cows and plows is now a thing of the distant past. That was never more apparent than here at the Rockdale Career Academy, where hundreds of students got an up-close look at all of the exciting careers within the ag industry.

“What do we need to do to assist students throughout the state to ensure that they are aware of over three hundred agribusiness careers throughout the state? And so, this is the inaugural Agribusiness Career Day Expo here at Rockdale Career Academy in Conyers, Georgia. So, we have thirty-eight industry professionals here today from all areas of agribusiness, which is out largest business in the state of Georgia,” says George Kelecheck, Chairman of the Rockdale Soil & Water Conservation.

With so many different fields being represented, there are no shortage of options, no matter where your interests might lie.

“You can be a plumber. You can be a welder. You can be a technician and have a wonderful job at an independent repair facility or maybe John Deere or one of our large dealerships, maybe Honda, Ford, Nissan, General Motors, because in agribusiness, you need to have everything,” says Kelecheck.

It’s also a sector that is all inclusive, with people of all ages and nationalities working together in order to keep the state’s number one industry running strong.

“Sharing this information with all types of individuals, male, female, whatever culture you’re from, to get them to have the exposure and go, and hopefully we’re going to get some great wows out of this today. Again, this supports the K-12 agribusiness STEM program and all of those types of programs that the schools have throughout the state,” says Kelecheck.

This is just the beginning, as more event like this are being planned all across the state in order to reach a wide range of students looking to choose their career path.

“The plan is to introduce these types of informational expos around the state. We plan to have ten of them over time, which again, will increase the knowledge of our student base to say you might want to be a biologist or a chemist and be in the agribusiness field. In this day and time, all employers are looking for great employees. So, the more that we can educate them and to have a great future as they move onward, whether it be in the trades or whether going to a two-year technical college system, I think the exposure, getting everybody together at once and go ‘oh, wow,'” says Kelecheck.

By: Damon Jones