Senior AGST major Tim Von Thun smiles outside the Chateau d'Angers, a castle in Angers, France.
Image Credit: Tim Von Thun
Postcards, photographs, and souvenirs help tell the story of a study abroad experience. But what if the best part of a trip was not something you could take home with you—the people you met?
For Tim Von Thun, a senior Agricultural Science and Technology major, the best part of his summer trip to Angers, France, was the new friendships he made, which have continued beyond his brief study abroad trip.
Von Thun attended the Ecole Supérieure d’Agriculture (ESA) in Angers this summer as part of a month-long study abroad experience. Students take classes in English and travel to farms to learn about different agricultural practices in the country.
Thirty-five Students from the University of Maryland, Texas A&M, University of Wyoming, Illinois State University, University of Wisconsin and University of Minnesota participated in this summer’s program.
“Everyone was nice and outgoing and that’s what I’ve been seeing from everyone in the agriculture industry,” Von Thun said, adding, “After a day or two it was like we had known each other for weeks.”
Von Thun said that his peers had diverse backgrounds and interests, ranging from people who had never set foot on a farm before to “people who grow 5,000 acres of cotton in Texas.”
Some students specialize in chicken, beef and cotton industries back home in the United States. Von Thun, whose family operates a fruit and vegetable farm in New Jersey, enjoyed talking to his peers about their agricultural experiences.
“In Maryland we know one kind of agriculture,” Von Thun said. “Being able to talk to people in Texas and the Midwest about their experience with agriculture opened my eyes to things.”
Conversations weren’t the only way to learn about diverse agricultural practices while in Angers. Field trips to farmers markets and dairy farms demonstrated the difference between agriculture in the United States and France.
When the group visited a farmers market, they asked what happens to the leftover food at the end of the day. The response? There are no leftovers, the class was told, because the farmers only bring the amount of produce they need to sell to support their families.
“You don’t have to produce as much as you can and go to the maximum limit. As long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters,” Von Thun said.
For Von Thun, this was a stark contrast from food production in the United States.
“We’d never do that in the United States,” he said. “We make more and more and more until we meet demand.”
Another agricultural practice new to Von Thun, called terroir, takes into account the climate, geography, and geology of an environment, as well as historical agricultural practices, when deciding what types of produce to grow. For his final project in Angers, his team reported on how the Champ Secret farm practices terroir when producing Camembert cheese.
Since the trip ended, Von Thun has stayed in touch with his new friends. He still has long conversations with them and can call them if he has a question about other agricultural industries.
When he thinks back to his time in Angers, Von Thun said that the memories he made with his friends come to mind.
“It’s great to have those experiences and look back on all the great times that month,” Von Thun said.
To learn more about the summer ESA program, visit the AGNR France Foreign Study page.
