By Whitney Baxter
Christopher Meyer’s passion for agronomy and feeding the world through agriculture led him to Iowa State University.
Meyer, a graduating senior in agronomy and agricultural business while concurrently pursuing an MBA, will serve as the student speaker at the fall 2024 CALS Convocation on Dec. 20 in Hilton Coliseum.
A native of Pocahontas, Iowa, Meyer grew up on an acreage and got involved in the World Food Prize Foundation’s Global Youth Institute in high school. He attended the Iowa Youth Institute at Iowa State, where he toured and met with professors in the Department of Agronomy. That visit, along with both his parents being Iowa State alums, sealed the deal for him to enroll in the agronomy program.
He picked up his second major in agricultural business to gain an economics background and later enrolled in the MBA program to bolster his business experience.
“The MBA program has changed my way of thinking about things,” Meyer said. “It has made me look at things from a problem-solving and critical thinking perspective.”
Mindy DeVries, associate teaching professor in agronomy, is Meyer’s academic advisor and had him in some of her agronomy courses.
“Christopher has always been proactive and prepared as a student and in my interactions with him,” DeVries said. “He identified very early in his academic career that he really wanted to work at the intersection of agronomy and ag business and built his program to develop both skill sets.”
Building from his experience with the Global Youth Institute, Meyer decided to sign up for the “Tropical Agriculture and Culture in Ghana” program, led by David Kwaw-Mensah, associate teaching professor in agronomy, Theressa Cooper, CALS assistant dean for collaborative initiatives, and Jodi Cornell, director of CALS Study Abroad. Meyer was interested in this part of the world because his GYI papers focused on sub-Saharan agriculture.
While in Ghana, he and the other students toured various colleges, met with local farmers, launched three 4-H chapters and learned about cultural differences.
"I was excited for the opportunity to go to Ghana, especially because my classes, my papers for the Global Youth Institute, and understanding of farming helped prepare me to learn more about agriculture abroad,” Meyer said.
His interest in combatting global food security led to him receiving the David Lambert Hunger Fighter Memorial Scholarship from Iowa State’s Seed Science Center.
To get a head start for a future career in agronomy, Meyer completed several internships as a student, spending the past two summers with Bayer Crop Science. His summer spent in Minot, North Dakota, working with farmers to help them find success was particularly impactful.
“It opened my eyes to how different farming is from person to person,” Meyer said.
Those internships with Bayer led to an offer for a full-time position. Following graduation in December, Meyer will move to Pennsylvania, where he will start as a field sales representative trainee with the company.