Welcome to the 2007-2008 ALFSA: Welcome New Members and Welcome Back Old Members! For those of you who are new to the organization, we send out a monthly newsletter that allows all our members to know what we accomplished during that month. So that way if you weren't able to make it to an event you can always know how it turned out and what to look forward to in the following month.

On behalf of the AgForLife Student Association we would like to thank everyone for becoming part of this great organization. The AgForLife Student Association is a direct expansion from the AgForLife concept (AgForLife.com) which was developed by Edward Romero and Pablo Ramirez (graduate student) of Texas A&M University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The main focus of the organization is to promote agriculture, food, and life sciences with an emphasis on underrepresented population. In order to reach this goal the organization has started programs like our Valley Mills Tutoring program in which members go and spend a day with high school students in Valley Mills, TX giving them a chance to learn the opportunities in agriculture. Not only do we reach out to future members, but we work on helping our current members gain access to many opportunities in the Agriculture Industry through networking with companies, gaining valuable leadership skills and community service. We are glad to see that many of our old members have returned and that many more have joined.

Officer Retreat: While you were all busy moving into your new apartments and dorms the officer team was already hard at work preparing events for the year in order to make it a great success. The all day retreat was held on August 24th at Edward Romero's home. Throughout the day the officers brainstormed on the Career Development Workshop, future outreaching programs, and many more activities to come throughout the year. So be advised that there are many great events planned to come this year thanks to all this preparation.

MSC Open House Fall 2007: Thank you to everyone that helped out with or showed up to Open House! We had over 80 students visit our table alone! Our dedicated AFLSA members that helped out did an excellent job of recruiting new members and getting our name out there.

Third Annual Workshop: What an amazing night the Career Development Workshop ended up being. We had a great turn out for members and non-members alike. The new formula this year, with mock interviews and seminar 'classes,' really was an improvement on a good thing. The companies that came out were really impressed with everyone's professionalism. After all the hard work that was put into this event by the Career Development Committee, other AFLSA members and the wonderful people in room 109, it was great to see it actually happen. A HUGE thank you goes out to everyone who helped make the CDW happen this year! For those of you who missed the workshop here is a little insight of what happened that day. We had five companies that volunteered their time to come out and help with the workshop. The following are the names of the companies and their representatives:

Archer Daniels Midland - Matt Telg
Monsanto - Catherine Becker
Collie Elanco - Todd Brocker
Cargill Meat Solution - Daniel Bennight
Agriculture Research Service (USDA)-Derrick Hall, Debra Owens, and Willis G.

Although Cargill and Monsanto came out just for the mock interviews the remaining companies had the chance to give a presentation to those in attendance. Elanco gave a presentation on Resume, Etiquette, and First Impressions teaching students what companies are looking for not only on your resumes but when you walk in for our first interview. Archer Daniels Midland presented on Texas is Great - Try Another State and Company Culture, giving students many great reasons why it is important to look out of Texas for future jobs and what you as a prospective employee should be looking for when choosing the future company you will be working with. Last, but not least Agriculture Research Service (USDA) spoke on Finding and applying for Federal jobs, letting students know exactly what federal jobs are looking for and how to better prepare yourself before applying to that job.

All this was done in order to prepare the students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences for ACE Day which this year was a two day event where agriculture companies come together and look for full time employees and interns.

Coming Soon: Look out for information about social in the next few weeks. These events will be a chance to get to know each other as friends and also a way for our organization to become closer with its members.

Participation Points: The AgForLife Student Association likes to recognize its members for coming out and participating in our events. That is why we have our participation points set up so that the member with the most points at the end of the year gets recognized with our member of the year award. A great way to earn easy points is by ordering one of our AgForLife Student Association Polos. They are 27.06 including tax and will earn you 5 points every time you wear it to our organizational events. They are navy blue and can be ordered in women's v-neck style or regular mens polos. We will be placing an order on Tuesday Oct. 16th 2007 so please make sure to get your money into Rm 109 to Fidel Martinez by that date. Other ways to earn points are, signing in at all AFLSA sponsored events and having your friends join. Also make sure to keep up with your points and if you think that what is posted online is wrong please see Fidel Martinez ASAP in order to get it fixed. Don't wait until the end of the year to try and add everything up.

September and October Birthdays: The AFLSA team would like to take a moment and wish our members a Happy Birthday for the months of September and October.

September Birthdays:
Kelly Bryant
Julie Crenwelge
Ann Johnson
Ashley Owens
Katie Perkins
Joseph Roberson
Antonio Lopez

October Birthdays:
Juan Arboleda
Sheldon Gallegos
Miguel Carlin

Upcoming Dates: Mark your calendars our general meetings for this month are going to be October 15th and 29th. Also another great way to keep up with up coming events is on our website that will be updated as new dates come up