Getting in on the Action: Involvement is the Spice of Life for Ag Econ Senior Kellie Segrest

By: Jamie Creamer

When College of Agriculture Associate Dean Bill Hardy was asked last summer to nominate one enthusiastic, highly motivated student to serve on a revolutionary new student-led world hunger awareness committee at Auburn University, he didn't think twice. He picked up the phone and called Kellie Segrest.

Hardy knew, for one thing, that Segrest would jump at the chance to be a part of this unique United Nations-sponsored committee on world hunger and, second, that she would represent the college in stellar fashion. That's just the sort of reputation the senior in agricultural economics has built for herself in her three and a half years at Auburn.

In addition to representing the college on this hunger-fighting Committee of 19, Segrest is a member of the Agricultural Student Council and of Alfa Young Farmers and is in her third year as an AU Ag Ambassador. The full-scholarship student also works part time in the dean's office, where her main job is to plan and coordinate the numerous Ag Career Days that keep Ag Ambassadors on the road all year marketing the College of Agriculture to high school students across the state. And just for the record, she also plays all kinds of intramural sports, she's active in the Auburn Christian Student Center, and through it all, she's managed to maintain a 3.98 GPA.

Says one dean's office employee of Segrest: "She's always juggling five or six different things, and she never drops one of them."

Segrest says the more she has going on, the happier she is. And the College of Agriculture is the ideal place to make that happen.

"I've never had to think about getting involved in anything," Segrest says. "The College of Agriculture just does something to bring out your talents and your gifts and help you refine them and make you want to be a part of as much of everything as you can.

"It honestly is like a family in the College of Ag," Segrest says. "In your family, everybody pulls their weight, and does things that are for the benefit of the family, and that's how it is in our college."

She says faculty, administrators and other students helped her fit in right from the beginning, and every passing semester has strengthened her pride in the college. As an Ag Ambassador, stressing the importance of the camaraderie that exists in the college is one of her major goals at high school career days—even though her audience often can't comprehend how important that is.

"We basically give our testimonies about the college, and you'll always have those 'cool' high school students who act like, 'big deal,' but it's interesting to watch them get here and see how much they come to value the identity students have in ag," Segrest says.

Growing up on a 2,500-acre Macon County family farm a few miles down the road from Auburn, it was always assumed Segrest would go to Auburn. It wasn't a given, though, that she would major in agriculture in college.

"But when I started looking at all the colleges and majors, there wasn't anything else that appealed to me," she says. "I was drawn to agriculture." And agricultural economics was the most logical route for her, given her future goals—which include being a part of Segrest Farms. Her brother A.J., now 15, long has let it be known that he plans to farm for a living. "He's quit baseball, football, just about everything, so that he can come home from school and head to the fields," Segrest says. "And in the summertime, he's out in the field before daylight and back in after dark. "He knows the production side, and with this degree, I'll be able to handle the business side, so that will make a strong partnership," Segrest says.

She realizes her role won't be a full-time job, and the ag econ degree will equip her to have a dual career.

Unlike many agricultural economics graduates, though, Segrest isn't interested in making a living selling farm chemicals. She has bigger plans. When she graduates in May, she will head straight into law school. She's already been accepted at Jones School of Law in Montgomery and Cumberland in Birmingham and also has applied to the University of Alabama. And as a lawyer, her top mission will be helping farmers.

"I either want to lobby for an agricultural group or go into law practice with a focus on ag law and helping farmers plan their estates and protect their property rights," Segrest says.

She knows there is a critical need for attorneys sympathetic to farm families.

"I go to class every day with kids talking about how the state's come and taken land away from their farm to put in a road, or about public nuisance cases being brought against their farms, and there aren't many lawyers out there who specialize in agriculture and farming," Segrest says. "What farmers need is, not just a lawyer, but a lawyer that understands the complexities of all their problems.

"They need somebody who understands that to the farm family, land isn't just a possession; it's something very personal."

And when Segrest finds success, she's already committed to remembering her roots.

"Our college has given me so much, and I truly believe it's important to remember where you came from," she says. "If I'm successful in my career, I plan to give back to the college any way I can."

<< TOP