Milosh McAdoo is a senior Animal Science (Animal Industry) student at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University. Milosh is from Efland, NC, and has been formally involved in the world of agriculture for over 7 years. Ultimately, Milosh intends to find a role that meets the intersections of Agriculture Leadership Development, Education, and Communications. Outside of student orgs and societies, Milosh is really starting to get into taking photos, and has also started an advocacy page on social media that celebrates folks of color in the agriculture industry.
What’s your biggest motivation right now?
This is a pretty loaded question. There are two motivators in my life that remain fairly constant. One is making my younger self proud. I’ve just seen so much growth between 5 year-old Milosh and 20 year-old Milosh, and I just hope that I’m doing justice to younger me and all the trials and tribulations that he went through to get here. My grandma has also been a huge motivator for me. She has always been a source of inspiration and stability for me; she’s just the type of person who is hard not to admire and love. In high school, my grandma was extremely talented, but was not able to really chase her dreams because of finances and societal limitations against women. Since I have the opportunity to go to college and chase my dreams, I want to do so to the fullest extent.
2. What made you fall in love with agriculture/animal science?
Like many others, I loved being around animals growing up. I would do whole presentations for my parents to let me have certain pets, and it worked most of the time. My family members were involved in agriculture on a small scale growing up, but I really fell in love with the industry in high school. I started to raise and show livestock and was really invested in learning more about the industry. Agriculture is just so purpose driven; how cool is it that I know my job will be helping to feed the world?
3. What do you wish your younger self knew about your current profession?
I wish I would have known how much there was to do in my field and how interested I would be in it. I think I would have participated in more things related to agriculture growing up had I known how much I would enjoy it.
4. Brag on yourself! What’s your biggest accomplishment to date?
I never really know how to answer this question because I feel that all of our accomplishments inform who we are now. While I can’t define my biggest accomplishment, something that I am proud of in this season of my life is a social media page I created. @fortheagri.culture is an Instagram page that celebrates and shares the experiences of folks of color in agriculture.
5. Tell us a little about what made you change your major. What major did you switch from/to, and why?
I originally started out as an Animal Science student wanting to do reproductive physiology, livestock genetics, or animal breeding. During the pandemic, however, I was reminded of how much I love being around and working with people in the animal/agriculture industry. I changed my major from Animal Science to Animal Science with an Animal Industry concentration, and I am now not taking as many science focused classes, but other courses that are more concentrated in agriculture business, marketing, communications, and education.
6. How do you balance life and work/Do you feel like you live a balanced life?
I try my best to balance work and life, but it’s an ever growing process. I really have to be intentional with how I spend my time after I get done with classes or work, and I try to do other things I enjoy every day.
7. What’s one thing that you wish you had known when you began your career?
I think this kind of ties into a previous question, but I wish I would have known how expansive it was or ways that I could have gotten involved when I was younger. I think that would have helped clarify what I wanted to do and given me more knowledge.
8. What is your biggest failure, and what did you learn from it?
I don’t think that I have a single largest failure because similar to the accomplishments, I feel that all of our failures help shape who we are. One thing that I’ve learned from all of these failures is how important it is to give myself grace. We are all growing and we are all learning, so we shouldn’t let our failures negatively define us, but we should instead use them as learning opportunities.
9. What advice would you give someone wanting to pursue a career similar to yours?
I would say just to be curious and take advantage of opportunities. You never know the people you’ll meet or the lessons you learn if you don’t practice curiosity.
10. What are the best resources that have helped you along the way?
People have honestly been the best resource. Learning from people’s experiences and expertise has been invaluable.
11.Who are the three people who have been the most influential to you?
It’s so hard to think of three people directly, so we’ll do three groups of people. My grandparents, my siblings, and my cousins have been the most influential to me. They’ve just taught me so much about being a solid person and navigating the world.
12.What’s the biggest challenge you’re facing in your role/business/project right now and how are you tackling it?
Time–and thinking that there’s not enough of it– is always a big challenge for me. Right now, I’m just working to be more intentional about how I use my time and making sure that I’m not putting time into things that don’t bring me joy or fulfillment.
13. What occupation (other than your own) would you pursue if not ag-related?
I think that I would maybe be a writer or some sort of creative full-time if I wasn’t pursuing my specific career. I still want to do photography and write on the side, but I don’t know that I would pursue them full-time outside the context of ag. right now.
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