Maddison Stone, Marketing Manager Greenway Equipment, Inc.
Growing up in Wynne, Arkansas, agriculture was always part of Maddison Stone’s life; however, a career in agriculture was never in her plan. She had dreams of a career “in a bigger city…outside of agriculture,” she said.
Maddison went to school at the University of Arkansas, starting as a broadcast journalism major. She quickly realized that wasn’t for her and switched to business. Still unsatisfied, she turned to her dad for advice.
“Take a step back, think about where you’re from. Think about what you love and what you know,” he told her.
Maddison immediately thought of agriculture. Her junior year, Maddison enrolled in an agricultural communications course, and all it took was one class before she changed her major. “It stuck,” she said. She’s been in love with the world of agribusiness ever since.
After graduation in 2015, Stone worked in the marketing and communications department of Hendrix College. After two years of fine tuning her photography and design skills, she worked at Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation as the Social Media Coordinator. Now she is the Marketing Manager for Greenway Equipment, Inc., where she gets to work in several areas of marketing and communication.
Maddison’s job is to create brand awareness for Greenway. In a normal day, she could be designing on a computer, or visiting with managers on location. From rice fields to cattle farms, Stone never knows where her day will take her. She always keeps a pair of boots in her car.
“Arkansas has such a wide variety of agriculture, that we get to cover everything,” Stone said.
So, could agriculture be for you? Because the state’s agriculture needs are so broad, the demand for students from all fields is high.
“It’s not just farming,” she said. The industry needs students with expertise in writing, STEM, technology, banking, etc. It takes all perspectives to make the industry work."
To learn more about career opportunities in agriculture communications, click here.
To find college majors in agriculture and salary information, visit MyMajors.com.