Haley Russell
Assistant News Editor
From growing up on a farm and becoming her father’s farmhand, Becky Mosbacher, senior from Prairie Du Roche, Ill., has always loved agriculture and has added another achievement on her list of 22 awards: Outstanding Graduate.
Mosbacher never expected to win the award when she gave her extensive resume, detailing more than six jobs and internships within the agricultural field, memberships of three different agriculture organizations on campus, to the Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges honors program.
When she received a call from Mike Young, assistant vice president of Student Affairs, she did not believe she had actually won the award.
“I got a call Monday morning from Mike Young asking if I had gotten a letter,” she said. “And I told him I got one from Who’s Who, but I hadn’t gotten anything else and he told me I got it and I was like ‘I got what?’ I just wasn’t expecting it.”
Mosbacher said she was encouraged by the Hutson School of Agriculture on campus to apply for outstanding graduate.
“I was always kind of told that if you’re eligible for an award, it’s never going to hurt to apply, because you may get it,” she said.
Mosbacher said when she began searching for colleges to attend, she looked for the best agriculture program, but it was Murray State’s ambiance and atmosphere and the people who occupied it that convinced her.
“But what really sold me was the people and the teachers, I don’t know, I just felt welcome,” she said.
Before coming to Murray State, Mosbacher said she never had a job; she had worked on her family’s farm.
The jobs that have equipped her for her future goals of becoming a livestock consultant and dream of one day owning her own farm have been her part time position at the Bovine Consulting Associates in Mayfield, Ky., and her administrative work in the E.B. Howton Agricultural Engineering Building.
Directly after graduation, Mosbacher said she plans on attending graduate school at Murray State and trying to find internships and jobs.
“I’m applying for a farm credit internship and hopefully working in a loan office or something like that; I’m also trying to find a position for an insurance adjuster for farm and livestock and then there’s a Noble Foundation out in Oklahoma that does farm research,” she said.
In her life, Mosbacher said she has had a lot of people who have influenced her.
Her family, though, has influenced her the most.
Mosbacher’s favorite part about being on a farm and working on a farm is the feeling that she owns something and helping feed people.
“Feeling that it’s yours and that you’ve accomplished something and that you’re working closely with God and it’s just part of His creation (is the best part),” she said. “And you’re feeding the world. One farmer feeds around 150 people, so that, in and of itself is kind of amazing.”
Along with Mosbacher’s 3.92 grade point average and now 23 awards, she is the Chancellor of Alpha Zeta honorary agriculture fraternity and chair of the Murray State Agriculture Leadership Council.
Don Robertson, vice president of Student Affairs, said the entire purpose of the University is to help students excel.
“The whole purpose of the institution is to educate and graduate our students and so I think Murray State has its emphasis in the right place because we recognize our outstanding graduate and that’s who speaks at commencement,” he said.
Robertson also said it was important the University recognizes its outstanding students.
Said Robertson: “This individual is not only reflected by the entire student body and not only reflects the academics but the opportunities our students have here to learn outside the classroom.”
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