Hard working. Team player. Determined.
When asked to describe Allison Engelhart, a 2025 summer agronomy intern with CHS River Plains in Ashley, N.D., location manager Barb Gorczewski quickly rattled off those traits. “Allison will step right in and help a team member. There is never a ‘I can’t do it’ moment with her,” Gorczewski says.
Engelhart, 19, from nearby Venturia, N.D., will be a sophomore at Bismarck (N.D.) State University this fall, studying ag business and agronomy. She aspires to take over the family crop farm and start a seed and ag retail business, although she says a full-time career in the cooperative system is another possibility.
“I’ve learned a lot working on the farm and in school, but the hands-on experience at the cooperative working with fertilizer, chemicals and our agronomists is really helpful,” Engelhart says. “It’s a lot easier to learn when you’re seeing what happens to the crop than just reading about it.”
At the CHS River Plains Ashley location, Engelhart helps operate the fertilizer plant and treat seed, among other duties.
The experience is paying off as Engelhart has taken on a larger role running her family’s grain operation after the death of her mother, Terra, in December 2024 and as her father, Jim, battles cancer.
“Now when I’m at home inoculating our soybean seed, I understand what and how much to include,” she says.
Volunteers with Farm Rescue, a nonprofit organization that helps farmers and ranchers in need, planted about 1,000 acres of soybeans for the Engelhart family this spring so James had more time to concentrate on his health and family.
Volunteers didn’t plant all the family’s soy acres: Allison planted 320 acres, which she rented from her father. “This gets my foot in the door for starting on my own,” she says. “It’s easier to rent from people when they know you have experience and you’re not a newbie.”
Gorczewski says the CHS internship program benefits both interns and CHS.
“They are the next generation of ag workers and farmers. Not all interns grew up on farms like Allison did. They learn how important cooperatives and farmers are when it comes to feeding the world.”
