Katie Finnegan

Responsibilities

My responsibilities during this internship included helping out during product processing, fabrication of carcasses, assisting during animal harvest, and cleaning and sanitizing rooms and machines after each use. Many of the responsibilities of this job all correlate together with one goal in mind: to produce a safe and high-quality meat product. Understanding food safety is critical, which makes the cleaning and sanitation portion of this job so important.

Accomplishments

My greatest accomplishment during this internship was creating my own BBQ product to enter into the University Class at the American Association of Meat Processors conference in Kansas City. I spent time formulating a rub for a chuck roast, to smoke and shred, along with creating a BBQ sauce to go with it. My hard work paid off as I received 4th place in the University BBQ Class at the conference.

Learning experience

The greatest lesson I learned from my experience is to keep an open mind. Going into this internship, I thought I knew what part of the job I would like the most, but as I got to try a little bit of everything that goes on in the meat processing world, I found that I enjoyed processing a little more than I imagined. If you are so focused on one thing, you will miss the great opportunities that you could have had right in front of you.

What advice would you give?

Don't be afriad to get your hands dirty and try something new. Just because something doesn't seem like the most glamorous job, it doesn't mean that you won't learn something from it and be able to take it with you in the future.