Each year, FM’s Landcare department employs more than 100 students. Their work is essential to meeting Landcare’s goals and provides students with much needed funds for school. It’s a win-win situation.
U of M Junior Katie Wiste is entering her second year as a Landcare student worker and has enjoyed the experience. She also appreciates working outdoors.
“This job is a little bit more physically taxing than some other jobs would be,” said Wiste. “But it gets me outside a lot, which I really like.”
“I like my co-workers a lot and I really like my boss. It’s really nice being outside on nice days. It’s relaxing … even though you’re working.”
As a student, Wiste appreciates Landcare’s flexible schedule because it allows her to plan her work hours around her class schedule, as long as she works the required amount of hours per week.
An Italian major and food science minor, Wiste plans to study abroad in Perugia, Italy, next spring. She will take all of her classes in Italian and plans to travel Europe in the summer to work on organic farms.
Raised on her family’s farm in Southeast Minnesota, Wiste is used to getting up early in the morning to work outside. She helped tend her family’s 26 Dairy Cows, as well as her own small herd of goats.
Wiste started high school at Spring Grove, but later transferred to Caledonia where she finished second academically in her class. A member of the National Honor Society, she also participated in both gymnastics and track in high school. She held the third best long jump in the state at one point and remains active in the U of M gymnastics club.
A regular 4H participant in the dairy and goats programs, Wiste still makes her own goat cheese back home in Black Hammer Township. This past summer she completed coursework for her cheese-making certificate from the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese, the nation's first and only comprehensive center devoted to artisan cheese. Eventually, she’d like to have her own small goat farm and make artisan cheese.
Read an article about Katie from her hometown newspaper, the Spring Grove Herald.
