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Early Years: I was born on June 29, 1984, in Omaha, Nebraska. My family has always lived in Dunlap, Iowa, which has a population of approximately 1200 people. It is located in western Iowa, at the intersection of State Highway 30 and State Highway 37. I attended the Boyer Valley Community School District, a consolidation of three former school districts. During high school I was involved in many activities including track, cross country, basketball, choir, swing choir, school mascot, and National Honor Society. I always knew that I would attend Iowa State even as a young child.
I have two older brothers both of which also attended Iowa State University. My oldest brother Jason majored in Agricultural Biochemistry. He also completed Officers' Training with the United States Air Force before continuing onto medical school at the University of Iowa. Jason married a fellow medical student during his last year of medical school. He is currently Chief Resident of Internal Medicine at Wilford Hall Medical Center on Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. My other brother Eric majored in Mathematics and obtained a high school teaching endorsement as well as a coaching license. He is also partially through a graduate degree program in Education at Iowa State. Eric is currently teaching Mathematics at Ames Community School District and coaching cross country and track. Eric married a fellow education major from Iowa State.
Undergraduate Education: A few months before graduating from high school and moving to Ames to start my college education I decided that Agronomy would be my major. I found Agronomy to be rather appealing because it is a science based major with various areas of specialization. I personally chose to focus my undergraduate education towards crop science and plant breeding.
When I first started at Iowa State, I decided to get a job on campus and worked at the Grain Quality Lab for two years. I had a flexible work schedule, which was nice when just starting college. My cousin Shawn also worked at the Grain Lab when I was working there.
On August 20, 2004, just before starting my Junior year, I met the most wonderful girl named Sabrina. We began dating September 4, 2004. Over the past two years she has met my entire family and they really like her. I have also met her entire family. We visit our families as much as possible and enjoy the time spent with both.
During my Junior year I worked as a soybean breeding research assistant with the soybean breeding group. I gained valuable experience in the field of Plant Breeding. I also tutored four students in Agronomy 320, which is a required Genetics course for Agronomy majors.
The summer before my Senior year I worked for Pioneer in Johnston. My boss was Karen Thompson, a research associate in the Complex Trait Genetics Department. I continued to work at Pioneer into the fall semester of my Senior year until early October. On October 10th I started a new job at Iowa State with Dr. Ken Moore, working on sweet sorghum. This project is the focus of my Masters' research project.
On May 6, 2006 I graduated with from Iowa State University with a B.S. Degree in Agronomy and Seed Science. Most of my family and Sabrina's family was able to attend my graduation. The next week I officially began Graduate School.
Graduate Education: I am currently a Graduate Research Assistant working for Dr. Ken Moore. My project consists of a management study of sweet sorghum for maximizing biomass production, a sweet sorghum variety trial, and a laboratory-based silage experiment. I have finished the field research portion of my research project and have nearly completed all my laboratory tests. In addition to my research project, I have also been a teaching fellow for two undergraduate Agronomy courses. Future: After I obtain my Masters of Science degree, I plan to continue my education and obtain a Ph. D. at another university here in the Midwest. I plan to major in Agronomy with emphasis on Crop Production and/or Plant Breeding. I am very interested in biomass cropping systems and would like to continue working in this field of research.
