Many of Lauren Kovach's friends were surprised when they heard about the food marketing major's plans to work on a farm after graduation. An honor student with a 3.8 GPA, Kovach has earned four academic scholarships at Saint Joseph's University and most recently, was honored with The Wall Street Journal's 2008 Student Achievement Award.
By all standards, the marketability of someone with Kovach's academic achievement and experience is high in the food industry. But for Kovach, working on a farm is more about having a passion for what she does every day than it is a paycheck. "There's a new consumer awareness about eating locally grown food, and people are becoming more interested in where their food comes from," she notes. "I'm just taking it one step further."
When Kovach decided to become a vegetarian in high school, food, by extension, became more of an issue for her. "I became more concerned with what I was eating, and where it was coming from," she explains. "So when it was time for me to choose a college, I was naturally drawn to colleges and universities with food programs."
Saint Joseph's University's five-year food marketing cooperative education program was appealing to Kovach because it introduced a business perspective to food and offered her the opportunity to work in the industry as an undergraduate. "I liked the idea of getting my hands dirty early on," she says.
During her five years at Saint Joseph's, Kovach enjoyed working for a family-owned company and specialty cheese shop, a major manufacturer and a produce trade association. "The exposure to the different areas of the food industry helped me develop customer service and managerial skills," she says of her various employments.
However, it was working on a modest farm in Monte San Savino, Italy, over the summer of 2007 that ignited Kovach's passion for helping local farmers bring their products to market. Her summer was spent jarring, packaging and labeling miso made from the soybeans on the farm, and pruning and maintaining the olive branches and grape vines to prepare for the fall harvest. "It was unlike anything I had ever done before," she recalls.
After graduation, Kovach will continue her work with local farmers as the assistant supervisor and marketing coordinator with Willow Creek Orchards in Collegeville, Pa., the only USDA Certified Organic farm in Montgomery County. Of her new role, she says: "I'm looking forward to educating consumers about what they're eating. What we eat and where we get it impacts everything from our health to our economy. In my new role, I'm going to help more people make that connection."
Contact: Carolyn Steigleman, Office of University Communications, 610-660-1355, csteigle@sju.edu