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Alumni Information

What was the first job you held after graduating from OSU?
International Trade Specialist, Ohio Department of Agriculture

Bio:
Ms. Cowardin is Chief, Division of Markets, for the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA). She accepted a position with ODA after completing an internship with the Ohio Department of Development's International Trade Division from September 1990 until January 1992. The ODA Division of Markets provides quality marketing services to Ohio's food and agricultural industries in order to enhance their competitive advantage in Ohio, the U.S., and the global marketplace. To accomplish this mission, the division provides technical marketing and export assistance to food processors, food ingredient companies, livestock producers, hardwood and lumber companies, commodity groups, and other agribusinesses in Ohio. She currently serves on the Executive Advisory Committee of the Mid-America International Agri-Trade Council, an organization that works with Midwestern food companies on promoting their consumer-oriented, value-added products in the international markets. She is an ex-officio member of the Ohio Soybean Association Board of Directors, and a member of the Ohio Grape Industries Committee. In addition she oversees the activities of the nine-state commodity marketing assessment programs in compliance with Ohio Revised Code Chapter 924. She has been with ODA for more than seven years, starting as an international trade specialist, and then serving as ODA's international trade program director, coordinating and leading several agricultural trade missions to foreign countries. As a result of her work promoting Ohio agricultural products in the global marketplace, she has traveled extensively around the U.S. and throughout the world, including Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, and Taiwan. She participated in two foreign study programs in France while in college.

Comments:
Seek out internships; there are lots of them available through the city and state. In addition to GPAs, employers also look at your work experience and campus activities. Don't lie! Ask the interviewer questions too; the interview is as much for you as for the employer. Questions show you are interested.