Agriculture Project Team
Author: Isabel Kasman | Major: Finance | Semester: Fall 2023
Hi everyone! My name is Isabel Kasman, and I am a senior majoring in Finance and minoring in Spanish. The research I collected for my thesis was through working as a small business consultant, where I assessed a problem and either offered up a solution or gathered data through field work.
This past summer, I got the opportunity to intern abroad for two months in Dangriga, Belize under a non-profit organization called Peacework. The University of Arkansas and Peacework have partnered with each other for over a decade, and students have been sent yearly to work on various special projects with the community. The three projects for this year included working with Bocawina National Forest, the Belize Tourism Industry Association, and the Ministry of Agriculture, and a total of ten students, including myself, were divided into groups based on preference.
Under the leadership of Heidy Cob-Canto, I worked on the agriculture project, which consisted of calculating cost of production (COP) for 2023’s habanero pepper season, performing market analysis on Dangriga’s consumer awareness of dragon fruit, and writing a business plan for the Hopkins Farmers Cooperative and Sandy Beach Women’s Cooperative (SBWC). The purpose of this trip was to collect all the research I would need to document when writing my thesis proposal this semester. Over the span of eight weeks, I was actively collecting data to explicate for my thesis and throughout the 2023 fall semester, I consolidated my data reports and research to reiterate what I learned during the internship.
Dr. Farmer was my mentor for the internship and advisor for my thesis hours, and she sent me a writing template with various questions so that I would know what data to collect. Aside from writing about the different projects I worked on, she wanted me to include relevant background information, which included statistics on the population, history, and climate. Over the fall semester, I wrote my thesis and organized it in sections including an introduction, literature review, background, detail on each of the research projects, evaluation, personal evaluation, short conclusion, and appendix. Because I had already written reports on the projects during the internship, I just had to consolidate my data, write my methodology for each task, and summarize the findings.
Two weeks before the semester ended, I submitted my first draft for a review and got feedback that I should include a few more statistics on poverty and food insecurity. I made the adjustments and had my thesis peer-reviewed in the writing lab. After reading through, I submitted for final review to Dr. Farmer and got approved to send it to my honors advisor.
The next step for me after this project is studying for my examinations to be a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley. I recently graduated in December from the university, and I have until June, which is my tentative start date, to prepare and test so that I can go into the firm licensed. I want to thank the Walton and Honors College for all of support they have given me to achieve my goals and pursue new ones upon graduating. I also want to thank my advisor Dr. Farmer for her guidance and direction throughout the internship and assistance while I wrote my thesis.