Michelle Borges, Agricultural Education, M.S.

Michelle Borges

Michelle Borges is a first-year graduate student pursuing a M.S. degree in Agricultural Education at Oregon State.

Michelle has the unique position of being the first student at OSU to specialize in agricultural sciences and natural resource communication within her Agricultural Education degree. This program has been “the perfect combination of both of my passions of communications and agriculture” for Michelle, with the agricultural communication field on the rise. “Agricultural Communications is becoming a more popular major and career, especially on the West Coast. For a student interested in a career that involved content creation, marketing, and communications within the agricultural industry, this major is best for them.”

Agriculture has been an important part of Michelle’s life since she was a child. “I grew up in an agriculturally-focused community and participated in organizations like 4-H and FFA which sparked my passion for agriculture. Her desire to emphasize the communications side of Ag Ed came from the joy of meeting new people, enjoying writing, and creativity especially with social media and graphic/web design.” Michelle came to Oregon State after receiving her bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Science with options in Communication and Leadership from California State University, Chico. While being the first and only person in her concentration has been an adjustment, Michelle has enjoyed helping to create the learning experience for future students. “Since my classes and projects are so new, there are some growing pains that the department and I have gone through but overall, it has been so exciting to explore the endless possibilities that this masters in Ag Comm can look like.” 

Michelle is the founder of the Agricultural Communications of Tomorrow (ACT) club, a national organization for those interested in agricultural communication. The goal of the club “is to work with other undergraduate students to build a sense of community and network for anyone interested in this career path.” In terms of her own personal studies, she has been collaborating with her advisors from CSU Chico and OSU, as well as preparing for academic conferences later this year. 

The hope for Michelle is for more students to join the agricultural communication discipline in the coming years. “I would recommend exploring what the classes, projects, and faculty you would be working with. Since I did my undergraduate in Ag Comm, I knew I wanted to stay in it for my master's degree. I enjoy the well-roundedness that this field of study provides you with strong writing skills, public speaking skills, and learning about content creation by working with stakeholders and industry partners. Ag Comm may be a smaller field, but it is growing dramatically and there is a strong tight knit network within it.”