Santiago Aguirre
Feb. 23, 2023
Santiago Aguirre is pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Agribusiness Economics & Management with an emphasis in Agribusiness Management. Santiago interned in the summer of 2022 with a privately-owned company, Prime Time International. Below highlights the company and Santiago’s internship experience, including his own words. The Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics congratulates Santiago on obtaining this internship experience to expand his horizon for his future career in the agribusiness industry. All photos and information are used with Santiago’s permission. Learn more regarding our internship enrollment for academic credit here.
Prime Time International is a leading pepper produce company in Palm Desert, California. According to Santiago, they are one of the largest year-round producers and suppliers of quality peppers throughout the U.S. The company was founded in 1992 and is still going 31 years strong with many partnerships. Santiago worked with Prime Time to create a 2-month program that would fulfill his internship total hours requirements. Santiago shadowed several department supervisors to become knowledgeable about each department in-depth and the responsibilities within each department. During each rotation, Santiago worked 2-3 days with a supervisor, then he was placed within each department with the team. He gained a variety of supply chain experience that cannot be obtained in the classroom such as tractor driving, preparing fields for harvesting, field safety, taking inventory of peppers to prepare for orders, and ultimately the shipment of orders. As Santiago wrote, “This left me with a valuable lesson since it gave me many points of view to consider the day I am in charge or the owner of my own company.” Santiago hopes to own his own company and farms one day to supply a numerous and varied amount of produce.
Santiago also explained that obtaining prior agribusiness knowledge and concepts from his AREC classes gave him an advantage in this internship. He went on to say, “It made me feel prepared and that my time at college has really helped me to understand the agricultural world at a superior level that I never thought I could get before graduating and having a job.” Not only did Santiago gain new professional skill sets across departments, but he also gained personal soft skills in collaborating with others in the agribusiness setting and in the field environment. Santiago went on to write, “I learned a very important life lesson because it is always important to talk to the people working by our sides, as they never stop being human beings with an outside life of work and could always teach us something new.”