A Big Year for Food and Ag COB faculty are building a strong foundation in food and agribusiness as the College develops a new major. In the works for the upcoming academic year: a brand-new major within the College of Business focused on all things food and ag. The new AgriBusiness & Food Innovation (AGBZ) major aims to prepare students to be leaders in the agribusiness and food realm.
recently as a panelist in the So You Want to Start a Food Business Panel Discussion organized by Collider last month. As an entrepreneur and innovator in the food space, Valluri is looking forward to supporting the College as it expands food and ag opportunities for students.
AGBZ students will take 13 agribusiness specific courses along with prerequisites and a series of electives depending on their areas of “The COB’s new major will engender exciting new opportunities interest. AGBZ—in partnership with the Henze Ag Initiative—is for our students by deepening our existing relationships but also the first major within the COB to require an internship. also developing new partnerships to serve the growing demand for food and agribusiness needs in the region,” says Valluri. “By Thanks to the diverse array of faculty members who specialize in having a more formal and focalized curriculum encompassing ag-related topics, AGBZ students have the opportunity to take both traditional as well as experiential elements, students will be courses from multiple disciplines—from marketing to finance to able to select concentration areas that will enable them to develop international business. the specialized skills that are most pertinent to industry employers today.” “It’s really across the whole College of Business,” says program director Dr. Shane Bowyer. “More and more faculty are looking at Dr. Maria Kalyvaki has an extensive how they can add food and ag into their coursework as well.” background in agricultural research. She holds degrees in precision agriculture Faculty Focus on Food & Ag and agriculture education and Across the COB, faculty are displaying their focus on the growing communications. food and agribusiness industries. “I am primarily interested in finding While the connection between accounting and agriculture may the skills that agribusinesses value the most [in] potential employees and how not be immediately apparent, Dr. Kris Rosacker sees them as higher education serves those. When I highly linked. The assistant professor of Accounting was raised talk to agricultural and food businesses, on a dairy farm and has long been interested in farm and ranch I hear them talking about looking for taxation. She recently spent her sabbatical year developing a candidates that, apart from theoretical new summer course for Master of Accounting (MAcc) students knowledge, have applied expertise, and titled Farm Estate and Business Planning. The course examines I would like to explore that further and essential principles of estate and gift taxation, which impact intercreate more opportunities for experiengenerational property transfers. tial learning for our students.” “During my sabbatical I completed several continuing education classes with universities in Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota,” she says. “This gave me the opportunity to talk with a range of farm and ranch tax professionals about the MAcc program and the MAcc Tax Certificate. As well as seek their input regarding the class I was developing.”
Kalyvaki recently moved from the Mass Communication department into Marketing. She is developing courses that focus on digital marketing and agribusiness with significant experiential and international components.
Dr. Chandu Valluri joined the COB faculty in 2019. The professor “The new Agribusiness degree will of Marketing came in with a trove of real-world experience that contribute to shaping the new workconsistently benefits students, including his Indian-inspired force that will help further the ag and food industry of the area,” she meal delivery service Infuzn. Since February 2021, Valluri and says. “Additionally, because of the Infuzn co-founder Dr. Ananth (Andy) Kollengode have been significant international faculty and sharing their passion for food education as peer group facilitators student population that Minnesota with other Southern Minnesota food entrepreneurs through a yearlong program sponsored by the Southern Minnesota Initiative State Mankato attracts and the global approach that the University serves, it Foundation (SMIF) and Rochester Area Economic Development is expected to see graduates that will Inc. (RAEDI). Each month the Founder Food Peer Group gathers have leadership roles in domestic and to explore and learn from one another. Valluri has also served as a international markets.” guest speaker in the Basics of Entrepreneurship course and most
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