Zimbabwe to Purdue

Why Purdue?

Hey agronomy people! I’m Lindsay Comer, a senior and I’m going to tell you why I chose Purdue and what led me to where I am today.

I have lived and worked on a farm all my life. I love being outside, whether it’s with the animals or out walking the fields. My grandpa has taught me a lot about farming, crops, soil, record keeping and so much more. As I got older he started showing and teaching me more about how crops grow, how to grow a good crop, identifying certain weeds and diseases, taking samples of soil, and the best applications to apply to a field to make it the most productive. Whenever he was teaching me these things I was all ears. Learning about the crops and soil was so intriguing to me. However, it took me a couple years to finally realize that my true passion was in agronomy.

I started out at IU Southeast majoring in Business Management, then I transferred to Purdue for Agribusiness. But, that wasn’t a real simple decision. God opened up the opportunity for me to spend my summer in Zimbabwe, Africa after my freshman year serving with a local missionary. During the summer we would go to a children’s home called Harvest Family Village. We spent lots of time playing soccer with the kids, teaching them bible lessons, and making fun crafts. One of the days we were there, the owner showed us around their place. They had their own sustainable farm to provide them with meat and veggies. Walking through their garden and looking at the soil, and their methods of growing a crop really intrigued me because it was so different from back home. At that moment, God spoke to me and told me he wanted me at Purdue studying agriculture so someday I could come back here and provide my knowledge to help these people grow an even more sustainable crop. From that point on I knew where I needed to be and I knew the career path I wanted to pursue. I realized that I wanted to be the person out in the field, I wanted to be able to go back to my home farm and help my grandpa make his farm more productive and eventually go back to Zimbabwe, or somewhere in Africa to improve their productivity. So, I finally saw the light and started pursuing a degree in Agronomy here at Purdue.

I had job shadowed a couple people who worked in the field of agronomy and I loved what they did. I decided I wanted to be the person farmers can turn to for guidance. My ultimate career goal is to be able to help growers make their farms more productive by guiding and advising them in identifying problems and prescribing the right applications to fix any disease/pest/weed problems. I love helping people. I love being outside in a field. I love being the person that people turn to for help. I knew that if I chose a career in Agronomy, I would be able to do just that.

So in saying all that, it took me traveling across the ocean to realize what I needed to be studying and what career I really wanted. I am now a senior and will be graduating in May and the game plan is to be an Agronomist or Crop Consultant in ag retail. The game plan is also go back to my southeast Indiana home and work down there, but who knows, maybe God will send me back across the ocean for a bit. Whatever happens after graduation, I know I will be working in a field somewhere and that’s where my passion lies.