News
Milbrath joins the state’s soybean council
Scott Wagar
10/07/2014
Bottineau native Heather Milbrath has been named to the North Dakota Soybean Council (NDSC) and serves the organization as a marketing communication intern.
“I am very excited about this opportunity with the Soybean Council.” Milbrath said.
“Coming from a soybean farm right here in North Dakota, I feel a strong connection with the work of the Council. I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience so far, and I look forward to meeting more producers in the future.”
Milbrath became interested in the NDSC this fall after spending her summer in Minneapolis where she worked as an intern for Winfield Solutions, LLC, an agricultural based business.
“After my internship this summer in Minneapolis, I really saw first-hand how valuable an internship is, which compelled me to apply for others,” Milbrath said.
“I found out about this internship through NDSU Career Center, and I was excited to see that the North Dakota Soybean Council had a communications internship. Agricultural Communications is a very specific major, so when I found an internship that was directly related to my education I had to give it a shot.”
Through the internship with the Soybean Council, Milbrath stated that her goal with the group is to get a better understanding of the soybean industry in her own state and to learn valuable community skills. She also wants to meet with as many North Dakota soybean farmers as she can to learn about their individual operations.
Milbrath’s position with the NDSC calls for her to conduct a number of duties, which are granting her an important education that can only be found in the working world of the soybean industry.
“There are a wide number of tasks that I will perform while I’m with the Council. So far, I have helped to design promotional materials for NDSC, assisted with trade teams visits, as well as various other tasks,” Milbrath said.
“My big project for the internship will be to find ways to promote board diversity for the upcoming NDSC board elections. This will allow me to use the knowledge I have gained in my classes and put it into real-world applications.”
Diana Beitelspacher, CEO of the North Dakota Soybean Council, is pleased to have Milbrath on her staff.
“We are excited to have Heather on our team and appreciate the contributions she is bringing to the Council,” Beitelspacher said.
“Teaming up with the state of North Dakota made this internship possible and creates a win-win scenario for us and for Heather. We have the benefit of her skills and talents while she gains valuable and practical agricultural and state agency work experience.”
Milbrath was born in Bottineau and raised on her family’s farm in Gardena where she was an active member in the family’s grain farming operations. She is 2011 Bottineau High School graduate and is currently a senior at North Dakota State University where she is earning a bachelor’s degree in agricultural communications, with minors in crop and weed science, public relations and advertising and web design.
While attending Bottineau High School, Milbrath was a member of the school’s FFA Chapter and served as the club’s president.
Outside of Milbrath’s marketing intern with Winfield Solutions, LLC, she was also a contributing writer and photographer for the Bottineau Courant from 2010 through 2013.
Milbrath started out at the Courant as an intern in the newspaper when she was a junior in high school and worked herself into a staff position. During her time with the Courant, Milbrath received numerous writing and photography awards from the North Dakota Newspaper Association, which included First Place in the 2014 agricultural photo category for a newspaper with 2,000 or more subscribers.
Milbrath said that internships play an important role in one’s career.
“I firmly believe that each job that I have gotten can be partially attributed to my past work experience, especially my four summers as a contributing writer with the Courant,” Milbrath said.
Milbrath is the daughter of Dean and Tammy Milbrath of Gardena.