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Welcome to Coffee. COJO. My name is Dimitria, and I'm so excited to have our guest with us today.

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Her name is Ariana Schumacher. She is a graduate student at SDSU.

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And I have taken some classes with her and super excited that I can virtually meet her and learn all about her and her journey.

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Welcome to our show. Thank you. So let's jump right on, man.

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Tell us about yourself. We originally from it How in the world you ended up at SDSU?

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You. Yeah. So I'm originally from Pierre, South Dakota, so not too far away from SDSU.

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So when I was looking at graduating high school, I wanted to go to a college that had an agricultural focus.

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So SDSU was really the only option in the state and one of the few colleges in the nation, but offered agricultural communication.

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So I got my undergrad in agricultural communications and a double major with journalism as well.

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And then I went on to get my to go to grad school so that I can hopefully become a professor one day.

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That's kind of the kind of the end goal. So we're chugging through grad school right now and hope to graduate this summer.

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Well, let me ask you this. So did you come from a family farm or how do you what was the connection with the agriculture?

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Yeah. So I am the fifth generation on our family farm.

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So we have a crop farm. I also worked at a research farm in high school, doing agricultural research,

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working with livestock and crops, and they're actually an STC research farm.

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So another common connection to South Dakota State. So I grew up with that agricultural background was active in Forage,

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which kind of helped me learn about speaking opportunities, communications through that.

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So pretty much a pretty broad agricultural background.

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But yeah, farm kid at heart. So I grew up on a farm, I think Kentucky, and we had all of the animals that you can think of.

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Did you all have any animals on your farm? Oh, when I was really, really little we had sheep and hogs, but once I hit about ten,

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my grandpa got out of the business and so my dad got rid of the animals. We had cats and dogs, but no livestock, unfortunately.

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Yeah. I think it's so cool to meet other women, especially that are interested or they believe that farm life.

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So it's I don't meet a lot of them. So when I do, I get super excited because it's an interesting world and I think it's amazing.

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Talk more about your journey, like, why do you want to be a professor?

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I was really inspired by my college professors,

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and I even consider going into agricultural education in college and then decided I didn't want to student teach,

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especially during COVID, things like that. So really decided to just get the agricultural communications focus.

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But once I hit graduation, I'd already been working in the journalism workforce for a couple of years now and was just starting to get a little bit of journalistic

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burnout and was looking for other opportunities where I could share my love of journalism without being an active journalist.

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And so being college professor was something I talked to with some of my undergrad professors, and they told me that it might be a good fit.

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And so I figured grad school was only two more years of college, so might as well hop on that right after graduation and see if I like teaching.

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Do you have any goals or aspirations to get your doctor or is this the final stop?

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I've definitely considered it. I haven't decided fully if I want to.

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I know that I will want to take a academic break once I'm done with this, especially since I work full time on top of that.

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But I would like to get into undergrad teaching first and then decide if that's

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really the path I want to go to before I go all the way for my doctorate.

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I've also looked at agricultural communications doctorates at other universities too,

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so might try branching into getting more of a diverse education too.

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So you've mentioned that you have a full time job, so tell us what your role is, where it's at and what you do.

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Yeah, so I am a multimedia journalist for Agric and Agric TV, so we are a magazine,

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website and TV show that runs once a week for pretty much the whole upper Midwest area.

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We cover about six states right now, and I am the South Dakota and Iowa.

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Reporter So I cover all of south dakota, all of iowa.

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Branch into minnesota, a little bit, nebraska a little bit kind of those surrounding states and cover everything there is to do with agriculture.

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So anything from livestock, crop weather, all that kind of stuff.

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And it's a fun way to see the state as a reporter and being out in a unique environment like agriculture and livestock and things.

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Is there anything that you have seen or viewed or that caught you off guard that was super unique that you could recall or share with our listeners?

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Just last month, actually, I got to attend the Buffalo Roundup in Custer State Park,

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and that is where they move thousands of bison across the prairie using horses and they.

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Grab them all up, give them health checks, things like that.

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So I got to cover that from the back of a truck kind of safari style camera on my shoulder riding through the prairie.

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And so that was an awesome kind of goal as a journalist to cover that event.

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So that was pretty fun. I also covered a story this summer with farmers in Iowa.

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They were two brothers in college and they made enough money playing the video game farming

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simulator and posting YouTube videos about it that they were able to buy a big farm down in Iowa.

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So they got to take their video games and turn them into an actual farm.

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So that was a really inspiring and pretty unique story to cover to all the guys.

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That thing have really caught me off guard because when I think of them, I think of like big and scary.

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Then I'm like, Dimitri, you grew up on a farm with bulls and cows, so it's okay.

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They're they're a lot scarier than cattle. Definitely pretty much in the back of the truck for most of it.

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You were getting close to them or anything like that. It was pretty awesome to see you do.

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That is exciting. It's like a bucket list type situation.

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There are reporters from all over the world there, which really that shocked me.

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I was just expecting like local, maybe a few from around the country,

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but talk to reporters from like Germany that traveled all the way to South Dakota.

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It. Mr. Watch it. So yeah, you definitely want to add that to your resumé you're involved in and tell me about that.

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A great agricultural outlet. A lot of farmers around here enjoy watching your weekly TV show that's just kind of pushed out for them.

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And then we also have the print magazine, too, So that gets shipped to their homes every every week.

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And they get to see kind of a few more stories than what we can fit into a 30 minute TV show every week.

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So let's switch gears and talk back to school.

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Are there any classes that you have absolutely loved while being in this program or one that

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you're in now that you love or it's helped prepare you for your role or your future role,

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what you can recall? Yeah. So the fundamental one for me and I go to speak to this class a lot is the basic news writing class on campus.

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So it's your entry level journalism class. I never dreamed I'd be a journalist with AG com.

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I thought I was going to go more of the marketing digital design route.

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I'm awfully digital design, and I kind of sat through the journalism class and Jim Helling teaches that class.

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And so that was kind of the moment where I realized, oh, this, this might work, this might be a fit.

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I was pretty shy up until that point, didn't like to talk to people.

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And so kind of blew away my friends and family when I told them I wanted to be a journalist and go talk to people every day.

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And that was pretty fundamental for me.

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Yeah, some of the agricultural classes too, were going to have a stronger background in some of those tougher topics.

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I was an animal science minor while I was there too, so I got to take some of the more in-depth animal science classes like Breeding and Genetics.

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And while taking those, I didn't think I would ever use that information.

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But actually it's great conversation starters with producers kind of build

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that trust up with them by having some of that background in tougher topics.

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So when you were on air a whole lot more, did you ever get nervous?

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And if you did, what helped you get through that? Oh, yes.

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I started off at my old job as a digital reporter.

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Never thought I would go on air, had a fear of cameras, fear of speaking slowly.

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They got to watching other reporters and going, Oh, that might be fun. So I was live every single morning.

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I was the morning show reporter. So I was on the early, early morning shows.

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I would do lab shots in the morning. I would be in the studio sometimes anchoring some of my pieces, things like that.

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And when I first started with that, it was nerve racking.

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My very first live shot, I set up the camera.

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It was dark outside. All you see is the shining light staring at you.

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And I froze and I just stood there and couldn't tell you what my story was about.

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Blank screen of my face for about 10 seconds before they chopped off.

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So the nerves definitely get to you. But honestly, just the practicing.

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I'd practice in the hallways before I'd go on. I'd kind of memorize stuff before I got to that point, especially if it was a live shot.

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I'm not an adlib person. I can't just stand there and talk.

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So memorizing, practicing. But once you're on air every single day, the nerves kind of go away.

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So you're getting ready to graduate. You've had a lot of great experience in the field.

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What advice would you give future communications professionals or journalists who are getting ready to enter the news industry?

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Yeah. Built your connections ahead of time. The biggest one for me would be reach out to those newsrooms.

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You never know who's going to have a job opening in the future, who's looking to hire,

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and maybe just hasn't gotten around to posting it online or even just getting your name out there to be like, Hey, I'm going to be graduating soon.

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Like you're going to see my name in the workforce. I got my last job.

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They didn't. Have a job opening when I sent them an email. I kind of just sent out an email.

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It was my last call like, Hey, I'm going to stay in the industry if I get a job with you.

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If not, I'm going to transition somewhere else. And they were able to hire me on without having a job.

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So building those connections is great.

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And you also just meet other journalists along the way or other people in the field that can kind of mentor you,

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be like, Hey, I saw a job opening or things like that. Are you involved in any like associations or have memberships and any clubs or anything?

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Right now I am involved with NFP, which is the National Association of Broadcasters.

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So that's a big national organization.

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They have a convention coming up here in a couple of weeks in Kansas City that we'll travel down to and we'll do stories there, things like that.

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But it's the only one I'm in right now. I was involved with little guy on campus one when I was an undergrad, so definitely one I.

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That's good. That's great. I agree. I think getting involved with an organization or association is always good,

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especially when you're getting ready to graduate or what have you, because you meet people.

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So I definitely for me, I'm involved.

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Well, I don't have a role, but I do have an active membership within the National Association of Black Journalists, which is awesome.

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And you get to meet people at the conferences. It is.

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And they have classes virtually and things like that.

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And I've met some really cool people. So networking is is the name of the game.

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Like you said earlier, you had said you are potentially interested in being a professor.

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Where do you see yourself in five years? So I would love to keep reporting to you, even if I do end up getting a more of a professor role.

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I'd love to keep reporting whether that's freelancing once in a while or still holding a part time job with AG Week as I do, I love my job.

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It's work from home, it's flexible, so it's a lot to do and I see a lot of fun.

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Get to work with some great ag journalists from across the Midwest.

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So staying in, reporting, staying active, I don't know.

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Yeah, yeah, we've done some amazing things. So last question.

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Well, two questions. You are very busy.

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You're in grad school, you have a full time job, you have a big aspirations and goals and you're involved with a lot of things.

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Is there anything that you like to do for fun or free time to relax and unwind?

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And you can be honest and share if you're a golden bachelor like me.

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I have been watching The Bachelor and one show that I consistently kept up with, but I love anything outside hiking, exploring.

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I live in the city now, so not quite as much exploring as I like, but getting outside, getting active,

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hanging out with my friends, and then watching Netflix, watching, watching shows in the evening, usually while I'm doing homework.

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But I think we all have to take a deep breath, learn to relax and unwind because it's a lot when you're in school.

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And like for me, I'm a mom, I've got a baby and a husband, and then I have businesses too.

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So sometimes I have to stop myself. Yeah.

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And just need to make sure. Yeah. Just put the laptop down and watch a television show.

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So lucky for me, Golden Bachelor was created. So that's been my amazing time on Thursday night.

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I was never a Bachelor fan. And then. Then I realized that when they got me hooked.

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Yeah. They say we broken so many records, which is awesome.

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So last question. Do you have anything,

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any other advice or anything to share to anyone who is listening to this podcast before we finish up and just get involved on campus,

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especially if you're in-person, if you're on campus and undergrad, I didn't get as involved as I would have liked to,

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and those college years go by pretty fast and you longer have a pandemic to fight with like we did.

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So get out, get involved, get connected, and talk with others in the industry.

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You'll learn so much from other people. Well, Ariana, thank you so much for being on our show.

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We are so excited for your future and we are thankful for all of the wisdom and the nuggets of inspiration that you left us today.

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And if anyone wants to stay in contact with you, do you have any social media handles that you want to share?

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Yeah. So you can find me on Facebook. It's just add Ariana Schumacher.

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I keep most updated on that. I am on Twitter or X as it's called now, and I believe it's you just surge.

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Ariana Schumacher should be able to find me. Well, I'm going to do that.

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And then other than that, we are signing off. Thank you all for listening and we will see you on our next episode.

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This podcast is the property of the School of Communication and Journalism at South Dakota State University, which reserves all rights to its use.

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Music by Cody and Johnson and Tyler Addison. James is licensed through AMP music.