Decoding Ag Bioscience with Cayla Chiddister

In this episode of See Yourself In, host Casey Harrison discusses career pathways in Indiana with Cayla Chiddister, Senior Manager of Communications at Agrinovus Indiana. Cayla shares her journey from growing up in a rural town to working at the intersection of innovation, storytelling, and ag biosciences. They delve into the state's advanced industries, including Agrinovus' mission to grow Indiana's ag bioscience economy, and highlight various career opportunities, programs, and the innovative work happening in this sector. Cayla also provides valuable career advice, emphasizing the importance of asking for opportunities, following the leader, and being present in one's career journey.

5 Key Takeaways:

Unexpected Paths Lead to Exciting Careers: Cayla’s journey highlights that your initial career aspirations might evolve, and saying "yes" to unexpected opportunities can lead to fulfilling and impactful roles.

Ag Bioscience is More Than Farming: This industry encompasses a vast array of fields, from animal health and food science to technology and sustainable packaging, offering diverse career paths for individuals with various skills and interests.  

Indiana is a Hub of Ag Bioscience Innovation: AgriNovus is actively fostering growth and innovation in this sector, creating exciting opportunities within the state.  

Resources Exist to Help You Get Involved: Programs like Field Atlas provide valuable tools and connections for students and those looking to enter or advance their careers in ag bioscience.  

Community and Collaboration are Key: The ag bioscience community in Indiana is supportive and eager to connect with new talent, offering a welcoming environment for career growth.

For more resources on the jobs, companies, and opportunities in Indiana, visithttps://www.cicpindiana.com/syi/  

Transcript

[00:00:00] Casey Harrison: Welcome to today's episode of See Yourself In where you will learn about cool jobs, people, and companies in Indiana. Today you'll hear about skills that will help you find success. And most importantly, we hope that we inspire you to dream big. I'm Casey Harrison, your host. See Yourself In is presented by the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership to help you discover all of the opportunities within Indiana's advanced industries.

We'll discuss career paths, job training programs, and ways to develop and apply your skills into these great opportunities. In today's episode, we're joined by Kayla Chidester. Kayla is a lifelong Hoosier who never imagined she'd still be in Indiana. But today, Kayla works at the intersection of innovation, storytelling, and ag biosciences.

We'll dive into her story today on See Yourself In.

Kayla, welcome to the podcast. Hey, thanks for having me. Oh, yeah, we're excited that you're here. So we mentioned it in the teaser and spoiler alert, but you shared that you're a lifelong Hoosier. What has kept you in Indiana? I 

[00:01:10] Cayla Chiddister: think you kind of have to go back to the beginning to sort of understand why I'm still here.

But I did grow up in a very rural town about an hour north of Indianapolis called Royal Center. And if you've never heard of it, join the club. But walking out of my childhood home looking straight ahead field to the right field. And so Very much an upbringing immersed in agriculture, although I wasn't part of a farm family myself.

And so the popular thing to do from my area, just given its geographic location, was to go to Purdue. My family had different ideas for us as kids. And so we spent a lot of summers, quite a few winter nights in Bloomington as kids. And I really fell in love with that campus, the community, the culture down there.

And so I always knew that IU was going to be part of my life. My path. And so when my collegiate journey started, I was at, at IU and I wanted to be a journalism major. I knew I wanted to tell stories. English was very much a favorite subject of mine. And that felt like a really great. real world application for who I wanted to be when I grew up.

And so way led to way. And I, you know, when I graduated from college, it was the 2008 recession, which was not a fantastic time to find a job, but a really fantastic experience and learning to say yes to opportunities, even if they don't quite look like what you maybe thought you would be doing. In that I found just a love for an industry that I accidentally tripped into and here we are today.

[00:02:41] Casey Harrison: Oh, I love that. We're gonna like take that back and go through every single piece of it because there's so much in, in your story and what you've shared, but I think the, the takeaway already is you know, Follow the path and the path wasn't straight. 

[00:02:53] Cayla Chiddister: No, it definitely wasn't. When I was in journalism school, my interest started migrating towards the storytelling of brands, specifically fashion brands.

And I really thought, okay, well maybe I'll write for women's wear daily or a monthly publication. I really focused on my magazine journalism classes and my newsprint classes. And I learned a lot about writing and how to succinctly tell a story in that time. But ironically. I've never written for a magazine and I spent most of my career in the spoken word with broadcast and podcasting and things like that.

And so it is a twist and a turn for sure. Oh, I 

[00:03:34] Casey Harrison: love that. Okay, so go back to high school. Do you remember college was a pathway? You knew you were probably going to be college bound. Did you know what you wanted to study? 

[00:03:43] Cayla Chiddister: I don't think I knew exactly what it was I wanted to study or even do or be. I felt like I knew writing was in my blood.

I knew that's what I wanted to do in some form or fashion. I just didn't know how to apply it. Math class did not interest me. I'm fairly certain I did not listen for any reason. Any of my high school physics course, so like it was, it was a pretty natural path for me to decide that I was going to go in this direction, but I didn't really know how I was going to apply it.

[00:04:16] Casey Harrison: And I love that you talked about, you know, when you graduated, while the economy was in a weird space, you took that as an opportunity just to say yes, talk to us a little bit about how those experiences helped you learn what you liked and didn't like. 

[00:04:28] Cayla Chiddister: I think it took eight months after my college graduation, which was a really frustrating time.

to find that first opportunity and that first opportunity came in the form of a midday radio slot at a small market, but high megawatt radio station out of Newcastle, Indiana. So I was a midday radio personality for a country radio station. And I did that for about three years. And what I think was really valuable about that time is if you've ever worked in any media outlet or entity.

But specifically small market ones, there aren't a lot of people and there are not a lot of resources. So if you want to do something, you get to. So I really did get to learn so many facets of that business that I don't think I would have learned otherwise. And a career was sort of born out of that. So from that radio experience, I was approached by a network that we were an affiliate of, Hoosierag Today, which is a family owned.

radio network across the state of Indiana covering Indiana agriculture news. And when I was offered the opportunity for a network spot, I was like, okay, cool. I know nothing about agriculture. Well, there's that. Yeah. And I will tell you, it was a big leap of faith and not something I ever saw myself doing, but an incredible story to tell once I got into it and met the people and the leaders that are in this space.

It's truly remarkable. 

[00:05:58] Casey Harrison: Well, and it's an interesting blend of your childhood that came back later in life. So let's lean into that a little bit. Today, you're the Senior Manager of Communications at Agrinovis Indiana, which is one of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership or CICP's five brand initiatives.

So Agrinovis is on a mission to grow Indiana's ag bioscience economy. But before we go much further, I'd love if you could help listeners get just a better understanding of what Agrinovis is and what you do. 

[00:06:24] Cayla Chiddister: AgriNovus is the initiative that focuses on the growth of the ag bioscience economy. And if you've not heard of that word, it's because we made it up.

Ag bioscience is that intersection of food, agriculture, science, and technology. And so we really looked at the state and said there's a lot of great support for Farmers and for policy and things like that, who's supporting that next wave of innovation that's going to come through the state and from that agronomist was born.

And so we really do focus on the innovation side of agriculture, and we look at it in five different pillars. So there's animal health and nutrition. So you think the Alenco animal health of the world, everything from vaccine to feed for Production agriculture and obviously for pets as well at Alinko and so animal health and nutrition is one food and nutrition ingredient formulation food manufacturing that is a big piece of our economy here in Indiana plant science and crop protection.

You have Corteva agri science Bex hybrids agri reliant genetics. These companies that are leading the way right here in Indiana. ag tech. So the drones that fly, the things that make us more efficient, that's another area we focus. And then obviously the hallmark of our industry is production agriculture and the farmer.

And so those four pillars are really there to support their growth and their success. And so that's where Agrinovas focuses. We do it in a few different ways, and we are a small but mighty team of seven people. And so we focus on business growth and that. idea of bringing companies to Indiana, helping the existing ones that are here grow.

It's a big piece of what we do. Startup acceleration, helping those next wave of companies grow that are here. We do some innovation challenges that award entrepreneurs for their ideas that solve problems on the farm. And then we have one that's focused on hunger and nutrition as well, and food access with our hunger tech innovation challenge, and then thought leadership, which is where I sit.

And so we, we do research, we do events, We, we have a podcast called Ag Bioscience that puts out quite a few episodes every, every year focused on the innovation that's happening here. Um, and then we also have our career exploration platform for high school and college age students called Field Atlas, which is designed to help them navigate their career path through Ag Bioscience.

[00:08:50] Casey Harrison: So if you're listening and you just thought, oh my gosh, all of this work is happening and I had no idea, we're glad that you're here because I think part of what we're hoping to do through See Yourself In is just to mystify what the advanced industries consist of. And so as you put yourself maybe in the seat of someone listening to this episode, talk to us a little bit about some of the programs that are available to support people that might want to plug into the ag biosciences industry, but think I'm not a farmer, or I don't know anything about.

anything, pharmaceuticals or the food processing or anything like that. It's a 

[00:09:22] Cayla Chiddister: gigantic industry, right? And we launched the brand of Field Atlas in 2020 with that in mind. It's not necessarily there to help a student understand what they should be studying, but to inspire them to understand what you are studying has an application in ag bioscience.

So if you are a business student and you're not readily thinking about how you could be working for a lingo animal health field, Atlas kind of helps connect those dots for you. Or if you're that law student that doesn't know what they want to do after you're done with law school, it helps you navigate that everything from communications to biology, data science, toxicology and beyond.

There's just so much opportunity and Field Atlas starts with a quiz that kind of helps you navigate that process. And then sort of soup to nuts takes you through who the companies are that hire for those roles, what the average wage looks like, what the employment outlook looks like, and then kind of connects you through to our job board so you can apply for those real time opportunities with the companies that are hiring right here in Indiana.

[00:10:26] Casey Harrison: That's fantastic. I mean, we have the quiz linked on the see yourself in website because we want people to be taking that and getting plugged in and talk just a little bit participating in the field atlas program. Is there a cost barrier? What is the commitment look like? 

[00:10:39] Cayla Chiddister: It is completely free. And I will say beyond the career exploration platform, there's so much more opportunity to get involved in those opportunities continue to grow.

And so additional to the Exploration platform. We have nine students across the state on six different college campuses that represent the ag biosciences right now. There are field atlas ambassadors and they champion the ag biosciences and tell their peers about what we do and why it's important and what they're doing.

they can be doing through different creative activations. I've seen cornhole tournaments, plant potting. I think there was yoga that somehow linked to the ag biosciences on the campus of DePauw last year. And so these students, we, we view them as our voice. I'm a storyteller by nature, but man, I don't relate to today's college student at all.

I'm a mother of two people at home. And so, you know, I think. Making sure that we have the right voice telling our story is deeply important. And our ambassadors are a critical piece of that. And so there's the opportunity to be a Field Atlas ambassador. It is a remote, part time, flexible position with us where you are just on your campus representing us developing growth strategies and tools for yourself as you enter the workforce.

And then we also have our company tours that we do twice a year right now. And students get the opportunity to really immerse themselves themselves into a professional development experience. They do a networking dinner with Ag Bioscience leaders the night before. We keep them here in Indianapolis overnight in a hotel, hop on a bus the next day, and we go tour a couple of different companies so they can begin to see what it's like to work in this industry.

And that has proven to be a very impactful way for them to understand their opportunities. 

[00:12:24] Casey Harrison: Well, understand opportunities and start building their network. We had Amy Jo Jones on recently, who was our first guest that talked really about ag biosciences. And Amy shared that this community of professionals doing this work is still growing.

And so it's a great time to plug in and start meeting people because you have great access to the leaders in the industry right here in Indiana. 

[00:12:45] Cayla Chiddister: Absolutely. You know, and I kind of talked about it earlier. I came into this industry not knowing anyone or anything. And I found a level of support here, largely why I'm still here, right?

That you don't really find anywhere else. And so it's been really refreshing to, you know, 15 years later, look at these young students coming in for these tours and seeing that same support system in this industry is still there. They want you to know what your opportunities are and they're there to help you succeed.

It's very refreshing. 

[00:13:15] Casey Harrison: Oh, that is. Let's pivot a little bit because I want to talk specifically about your role and maybe demystifying for those listening, like what does a senior manager of communications do? Well, every day is a little different. 

[00:13:28] Cayla Chiddister: Um, because we are a mighty team of seven, you know, we are, we are ebbing and flowing with our own calendar.

And so it can look anything like Tomorrow, for instance, I will come into this exact room and produce our podcast and we'll do four episodes. And I produce that alongside a team of great people that help us sort of shape that product as it is today. And I spend quite a bit of time on that. Some days we are going through and planning company tours and connecting with students.

I had the opportunity to speak to about 60 students at Purdue on Monday night. And so every day looks a little bit different. Uh, we focus largely on, on outcome and so whatever we can do to be out and be communicating our message is most important, but it does look a lot different. Anything from press release writing to media partnerships to our podcast, I touch a little bit of it all.

[00:14:21] Casey Harrison: And I want to noodle into because when we talked earlier, you had shared that there are some, some different ways, especially in the innovation and the ag biosciences space that I was just mind blown out. So maybe if you could touch just a tiny bit on what are some of the innovative things happening in this industry that are happening in Indiana?

[00:14:37] Cayla Chiddister: You could obviously look before I dive into specifics, I will tell you our CEO, Mitch Frazier, who is a terrific visionary. He always says ag bioscience is the only economy in the world that touches every person on the planet every day because the center is on food. And ideally, you're being touched by it three times.

And so when you really start to drill into the examples of what are here in this This interesting space that we're in, we, we have great opportunities here in Indiana given our strengths. And so we kind of talked a bit about some of those trends the other day, and some of them start right at the farm gate with farmer focused innovation.

Farmers are the original entrepreneur. I mean, when you really think about the risk they take on every year to feed us, clothe us, fuel the world, they are the ultimate entrepreneur. And so. getting them better connected to innovators to drive technologies forward that impact their business. That feels like a win win not super obvious to most, but something that we are working on very, very significantly here.

Our producer led innovation challenge. We'll wrap up next week and we'll announce a winner in December, but that is a problem statement defined by Indiana farmers that the Indiana tech community is going out and solving its collaboration at its highest. And then Indiana farmers are actually funding that opportunity with a 25, 000 grand prize to accelerate commercialization of that solution.

And so that's one area that, that we focus on that we think is really important. Another one is bio innovation. So the idea that crops in the ground here in Indiana can make other products besides just being a crop. That's right. Yeah. I used the example with you of Agro Renew down in Vincennes. A lot of people don't know that Indiana is a big melon production state.

And that area of the state is very heavy in that space. Agro Renew is a company that takes watermelon. Bi product or watermelons specifically and turns them into packaging, bio based packaging. And so those are the kinds of things that are happening here. There was a new partnership announced in Lafayette a couple of weeks ago between companies called Sustainia and Premiant that also focus in these sustainable packaging spaces where they're taking agricultural products and turning them into things that are good for our planet.

And so bio innovation is number two. And then the last one, which is really important and kind of connects us all. And this see yourself in picture that we are talking about and it's food is health. We are home to the nation's largest medical school. We have Elevance Health here. We have Eli Lilly. We have a Alenko.

We have Corteva. We have Purdue University. We have IU. And all of those things connect people, plants, animals, and the planet together to create this system where everything is optimized for. plant, animal and human nutrition and ultimately planet wellness as well. So taking a look at how food becomes medicine for us is going to be a big initiative moving forward.

[00:17:46] Casey Harrison: It's just so exciting to hear you talk about this stuff and it's so cool to, I'm, similarly, I'm a lifelong Hoosier and it's just so cool to know that this innovation is happening right here in Indiana. 

[00:17:56] Cayla Chiddister: Yeah. And when you start connecting the dots, it gets, you It's really small and intertwined, but also very cool.

I love 

[00:18:01] Casey Harrison: it. Okay. Let's, let's pivot just a tiny bit. I want to know what keeps you so passionate about this work. 

[00:18:08] Cayla Chiddister: The ag bioscience is the only economy that touches every person on the planet. It's a very powerful statement. And it is true and we don't take that lightly. The work that farmers do to make every day go for everyone is very important.

And so that kind of keeps me passionate. Working with a great team that has a very specific vision is really helpful as well. 

[00:18:31] Casey Harrison: Okay, so before we end every episode of See Yourself In, which they all go so fast, but this one went especially fast today, um, we like to ask our guests to share three things that you've learned on your career journey that might help people listening.

[00:18:44] Cayla Chiddister: I kind of touched on one already, but I would say. If you don't ask, you won't know. So ask for the opportunity to learn. If you are told no, it doesn't mean no forever. It just means no today, but you won't know if you don't ask. So that's number one. I would also advise you to follow the leader, not the opportunity.

Opportunities can always look really shiny. In certain instances, leaders will carry you through. So I like to follow the leader. And then lastly, yeah. Goals are really important and growth is really important and there have been a lot of times where I have been so focused on what is 200 yards in front of me that I don't recognize what's happening now.

Be present because your career goes insanely fast and if you don't stop to acknowledge the impact you're making, you will miss it. And I like to pause a little bit more often these days and reflect on the impact we're making because it's significant. 

[00:19:41] Casey Harrison: It's very significant. Fantastic advice. Thank you for joining us.

Hey, thanks for having me. This was so fun. We're so glad that you were able to join us today to learn about Indiana's advanced industries and how you can start or enhance your career journey. Until next time, we hope that you'll be able to see yourself in the unlimited opportunities in Indiana.