Purdue Ag Council Invites Alumni to Share Experiences, Advice

LEAD. GROW. GIVE. REMEMBER.

That’s the Co-Alliance mission which guides our daily work.

In 2022 the Purdue Ag Council reached out to us about being a part of their Ag Council Spring Retreat, an evening used to connect Ag Council members with those who have a career in agriculture.

We quickly accepted the offer and began planning our end. The initial offer asked us to provide a keynote speaker, but we had another thought. We gathered four Purdue alumni who have very different paths to their positions within Co-Alliance and created a panel that would provide insight and considerations to the Ag Council members.
 

One panel member moved states away to begin his career then happily returned to the Midwest.

One panel member admitted they are not in the role they thought they’d be in while in college – they’re in a better place.

One panel member greatly encouraged Ag Council members to leave the country on a study abroad to discover a different world perspective.

One panel member revealed that he’s managing the same ag center he visited as a child and spoke of the leadership opportunities he’s discovered truly in his own backyard.

The panel was moderated by fellow Purdue alum and Co-Alliance employee Lindsay Sankey. 
The panel members included:
 

 

Clint Noyes
Location Manager - Grain
Clint grew up in Brownsburg, IN and spent a lot of his childhood riding around in tractors with his grandpa. As he grew, he participated in multiple sports and was active in 4-H. After high school Clint decided to attend Purdue University and graduated with a B.S. in Agricultural Systems Management. He then moved to St. Louis to work for Consolidated Grain & Barge to learn their operation on the Mississippi River. He spent 2 years there and moved further downriver to the Memphis area. After spending several years with CGB he decided it was time to move back to join the Co-Alliance team. He’s currently a location manager in the grain division.
 

 

Lauren Taylor
Digital Marketing Specialist
Lauren Taylor is a member of the Co-Alliance Cooperative Marketing team where she serves as the Digital & Agronomy Marketing Specialist. Her day to day includes creative strategy to grow Co-Alliance’s online brand, promoting Co-Alliance’s agronomy portfolio to help growers succeed, and assisting in telling stories of the Co-Alliance employee team and farmer owners.  She rejoined Co-Alliance in 2020 after spending four years working for the Indiana Soybean Alliance and Indiana Corn Growers Association as the Corporate Sponsorship and Membership Manager. Prior to her time at corn and soybean Lauren worked for Co-Alliance as the Social Media and Marketing Specialist. She is a proud Purdue Ag Comm grad where she received her degree in 2016. When the day is done, Lauren enjoys spending time with her family and rooting for the Purdue Boilermakers!
 

Lauren Bush
Operations Specialist
Lauren Bush is a 2021 graduate of Purdue University, where she studied Ag Business and minored in Animal Sciences and Farm Management. Lauren was involved in many organizations while at Purdue, one of those being Ag Council. She has been with Co-Alliance for about a year and a half. Currently, she works in Co-Alliance’s Swine and Animal Nutrition division in Reynolds, Indiana as an Operations Specialist. Lauren’s day to day operations include special projects, supply chain management, and logistics. Lauren lives in Camden, Indiana with her fiancé Adam.
 

Dane Hardebeck
Agronomy Location Manager
Dane Hardebeck is the Location Manager for Reynolds Agronomy. He began his career at Co-Alliance during the spring of 2019 as the Seed Hub Manager. He is very familiar with the White County area where the branch is located as he was raised 15 minutes away in the small town of Wolcott on a family farm. Dane received his degree from Purdue University in Agronomic Business and Marketing. He is excited to continue his career as Agronomy Location Manager at Co-Alliance as he believes Co-Alliance always puts employees and customers first. 
 

The evening was incredibly valuable in that four perspectives were delivered to one audience. While half the time was spent telling our stories, the second half was spent answering questions from the Council members. I believe we could have stayed a third hour and still been guiding students on the experiences and years ahead of them.  

Mentorships are valuable, and this evening felt like a micro-mentorship – with dinner served! Our hope is that we discover more opportunities such as this one where we can translate lessons learned by our employees into guidance and encouragement for those who follow.

Thank you to the Purdue Ag Council for the invitation to visit with students. We very much look forward to keeping in touch with those we met through this evening.