Tamar is a second-year FANPP student who interned with New Entry Sustainable Farming Project’s national program team. Here are some reflections about the experience:
In just a few sentences, please tell us about your summer internship. How does it connect to your personal and professional interests?
This past summer (and into fall 2025), I interned with New Entry Sustainable Farming Project’s national program team. My internship was focused on conducting a national case study about models for shared agricultural land.
So far in my studies of food and nutrition policy and programs (FANPP), I am interested in food justice and equity. A huge component of food and farming is land access. The state of land ownership in the United States is incredibly unequal, with 98% of farms owned by white people. Farmland is very expensive, and farm owners are retiring. Given this context, my work for New Entry sought to identify models for shared agricultural land ownership, share learnings with broader networks, and inform agricultural policy that promotes shared land.
How did you land your internship?
I landed my internship due to networking and prior experience. I expressed my interest in community food security to a second-year Friedman student and my advisor, Jennie Coates. They both told me about New Entry, and Jennie connected me with Hugh Joseph, the previous executive director of New Entry. I was intrigued by their work connecting beginning farmers to the market through their Food Hub, so Hugh connected me with Jennifer Hashley, the current ED. Simultaneously, I applied for a marketing position within the Food Hub and told Jennifer that I had applied. I had an interview with the Food Hub, and later a second interview with the national programs team, who offered me a role that had not even been published on the website. The role seemed like a perfect fit, as my interests aligned with the project, and I had prior experience conducting case study research.
What did you enjoy about your internship? What did you find challenging?
I enjoyed the autonomy that I had throughout the internship. Because I was tasked with most of the work conducting the case study (designing the research protocol, drafting the literature review, writing questions, conducting interviews, and writing the case studies), I felt strong ownership over the project. I was also lucky to be supported by my supervisor, the manager of the National Programs Team. She guided me deeply, provided helpful feedback, and mentored me. Although I was given a lot of responsibility, I never felt alone in my work.
What are the necessary soft and hard skills needed for this position?
Hard skills: Writing, specifically combining a lot of information into a 5–6-page narrative and further consolidating narratives into 1-page short-form pieces and podcast episodes. Interview skills were also important as I gathered information.
Soft skills: critical thinking, ethical research design and conduct, and time management.
If you could offer one piece of internship search advice to your peers, what would it be?
The best piece of advice that I received throughout my search, by a good friend, was that I only needed one internship. Instead of getting caught up in applying to as many internships as possible, what worked best for me was spending time thinking about my interests and the type of work I wanted to do. I then found organizations that aligned with my interests. Intentionally networking and applying to positions helped me focus my energy and eventually land a role.
