OAK BROOK, Ill. – Jose Quintero came to the United States from Mexico to obtain a master’s degree in agricultural economics at Michigan State University. 

Six months later, the 23-year-old Quintero is a Farm Foundation Agricultural Scholars Recipient.

Quintero, who helped on his family’s guava orchard as a child, expressed gratitude for the doors he expects to open from being a scholar. “It’s a big honor that’s for sure,” he said.

Farm Foundation sponsors the annual program in partnership with USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS).

Up to 15 applied or agricultural economics graduate students are selected to join the program for inspiration and training in agricultural policy, commodity market analysis, agricultural finance and other applied fields, according to Farm Foundation, based in Oak Brook.

Martha King, the foundation’s vice president of programs and projects, scholars receive a unique opportunity to connect with USDA and other leaders from a wider agricultural sector.

Recipients participate in events and projects, including a mentorship with an ERS senior analyst, throughout the year. “Farm Foundation is pleased to continue to support the development of the next generation of agricultural economists,” she said.

Quintero majored in agronomy in high school in Zitacuaro, a city in west central Mexico. He went on to a university in Mexico City and obtained a bachelor’s degree in economics.

Quintero, looking to further his studies in economics, was accepted by numerous colleges and chose Michigan State.

His biggest adjustment to the United States, so far, has nothing to do with the books. It’s wearing the extra layers of clothing he’s still buying to keep warm in weather he didn’t expect to be this frigid. Temperatures in his hometown rarely, if ever, dip below freezing.

“I was definitely not used to getting this cold. I’ve also never been around so much snow. I use thermal underwear which my colleagues don’t,” Quintero said.

Quintero said he was 8 when he started planting guava trees on his father’s orchard. His total plantings reached about 1,000 trees four years later when his father sold the orchard and took a full-time job as an agronomist.

Quintero said he’s not sure yet about his future aspirations but, ideally, hopes his paycheck is connected in some way to agriculture.

“This is the sector I’ve been working for my whole life. This is what I know. This is what I like,” he said.

Other scholars include Megan Hughes, who grew up on a farm in Woodstock, Ill., about 60 miles northwest of Chicago.

Hughes, 25, is working on her doctorate in agricultural economics at Purdue University after obtaining her master’s degrees in agricultural economics there.

She received her bachelor’s degree in agri-business management from Michigan State.

Hughes said she detasseled and husked seed corn at harvest time while growing up on her family’s 5th generation farm, which also raises soybeans. She also helped coordinate the hiring of mostly local high school students to help with the detasseling.

Hughes said she started out as a microbiology major but feeling her studies were boring, switched majors a few more times before deciding agricultural economics was her calling. Hughes said it only made sense given her background in agriculture and that she always liked math.

She can use her math skills to squeeze numbers in helping farmers decide the most profitable crops to grow from season to season. “It just felt kind of like home to me,” she said.

Hughes said she’s already taken a trip to Florida as a scholar to learn about the farming of sugar cane, rice and other crops in a much different climate.

She also has an internship this summer with the data science program at John Deere.

Hughes said she’s not sure about her plans in the job market but hasn’t ruled out returning to the family farm at some point. “I can see myself going back one day to help them with the books, but I think the family is in great hands for now,” she said.