Student Club: Agricultural Students' Society

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Every year, a big fundraiser for the Agricultural Students’ Society is to cover silage pits for farmers in and around the Lethbridge area. In past years, we have been to Kasko Farms, and this year we went to Shelter Valley Land & Cattle. This event consists of helping farmers put plastic wrap and tires over silage pits, as more hands make this a more manageable and efficient job. Our club is grateful to have connections with local farmers for the opportunity to help give back to our community, while raising money for the club.

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Every year our club’s kick-off event is a BBQ at the Lethbridge Corn Maze out by Shaughnessy. It is a way for the members to meet their executive team as well as other members within the club. We start off with burgers on the grill in the BBQ pit, where members can also go see the petting zoo, ride the train, or hop on the playgrounds and ziplines that the Corn Maze sets up every year. This is a favorite event among many members, especially those that are new, as it’s an easy way to sit down and chat with students outside your program and get to know some familiar faces around campus. After some burgers and conversation, the members are split into teams and head to the maze! We race through to see who can get out first and be crowned the first winners of the club year. It’s a good time filled with good food and tons of laughs. A great way to start off the school year!

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Our big fundraiser of the year is our Barn Burner! We rent out the Canadian Polish Association Hall to have a big barn dance, where aggies, family, and friends come from all over to two-step, play beer pong, and chat with old pals! It is usually our kick off event for second semester to give students the chance to get to know their fellow aggies before they get too busy. This year we had just under 200 attendants and made over $5000 for our club, which goes towards hosting other events and team building activities for our members. We also have the opportunity to help out our University Pronghorn Sports Teams by hiring them for bartending and security, and this year we had the Pronghorns Women’s Softball Team volunteer. Barn Burner is a club favourite and is definitely a highlight throughout the year.

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The aggie dodgeball team is a force to be reckoned with! Last year we had a dodgeball team in the intramural program at the University and in the Fall 2023 we plan to have another and add in a volleyball team! Although we didn’t make it very far into playoffs, the team had the spirit of gold medalists, especially in our matching t-shirts. Hopefully next year we make it onto the podium!

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Every Halloween weekend the aggies head to Boss Hogs Country Saloon for our annual costume contest. We have solo costumes, group costumes, couples’ costumes, you name it! This year our crowned winners were Woody and Jessie from Toy Story!

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We attended Bar None hosted by the University of Alberta Aggies, where all proceeds are donated to STARS Air Ambulance. With a warm-up dance on the Friday and the big event on Saturday, aggies get a whole weekend of seeing long-time friends and making new ones. This year Jade Eagleson performed and the UAlberta Aggies put on an amazing event!

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To celebrate the ending of first semester, our club has an Ugly Christmas Sweater contest! In previous years we’ve hosted our contest over some friendly but competitive bowling. This year we decided to mix it up and do axe throwing at True North Axe Throwing. Members competed with one another in face off rounds, and the winners were crowned in tournament style elimination! The ugliest Christmas sweater of the night wins a gift card and bragging rights till next year!

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Hanlon Ag has provided us with a generous fundraising opportunity during our first semester over the years. We team up with the Lethbridge College Aggies to polish equipment for them at Exhibition Park. This is an amazing opportunity for our clubs to raise money at the start of the year to utilize for upcoming events and activities. We are grateful to have amazing local businesses like Hanlon Ag that support us throughout our year and help us promote the agricultural industry.

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Our club also arranges a variety of tours with local businesses to look around and learn about their facilities. This year we headed to McCain Foods in Chin to check out their processing facility. We even tasted their fresh French fries to ensure quality control!

In previous years we’ve toured dairy farms and distilleries. We headed up to Calgary to check out Origins Brewery on last year’s Great Aggie Adventure! Next year we are hoping to also have tours related to the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers Association, as well as facilities for Seed Canola Production.

As a student club, we feel it is vital to support members in their future careers and connecting our students with members of the agricultural community is a way we bridge that gap. Each year we have many speakers come out and chat with us about the opportunities for students, both continuing and graduating. This year we had the opportunity to have BASF come and talk about their summer student and graduating student job offerings, in which connected many members with the resources to begin their job applications. They provided the club with information about their various roles and departments that catered to all degree programs throughout the university, not just the agriculture students.

We also had the pleasure of speaking with Suji Jeong from the Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine. She walked members through the process of acquiring requirements for veterinary school and how to ace the interviews. She also provided insight about the Ross University in the Caribbean, allowing for an alternative study program for those interested in veterinary medicine.

Paytten from Away to Work was another presenter we had the pleasure of bringing in. She informed us about opportunities for working abroad in a variety of industries and providing us with information about her own personal experience too. Bringing in presenters is a large part of our year as it’s a way for students to get their foot in the door and learn about an array of opportunities outside of the university.

When the bull riders come to town, you can count on the University and College Aggies to head down to the Enmax Centre for a night of yahoos and yeehaws! This year we attended PBR in September and March, with the opportunity of having floor seats to get up close and personal. It is a great opportunity to meet members from both clubs and watch some talented bull riding!

Throughout the year, we collaborate with other university and college agriculture clubs to support them in their fundraising events. Our members will travel all over the province, and into Saskatchewan, to attend events hosted by other aggies. These events are a way to support our fellow agriculture students from other schools, in addition to meeting new people and furthering connections throughout the industry.

The first of these events is Ag Bag Drag hosted by the Agros at the University of Saskatchewan. Many of our club members head over for the dance and the pub crawl that they organize! Their proceeds go to the Do More Agriculture Foundation in support of mental health awareness among those in the agriculture industry. This event also allows for members to dress up in costumes, as it usually falls in October just prior to Halloween.

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As some final friendly competition, the Aggies head over to Holiday Bowl for our bowling windup event! It allows for members to visit before finals and gives the graduating members a final farewell. This is a favourite for many members as a break from the semester and to chat with all the friends made throughout the year. This year we split the members into three teams and awarded the winning team with some UL merch items!