Two Students Selected to Receive Ranee May Dairy Internship Awards

April 27, 2015 -- The University of Wisconsin-River Falls (UWRF) Animal and Food Science Department has selected Leah Granlund of Blair and Mariana Scoqui Guimaraes of Sao Jose do Rio Pardo, Brazil, for the Ranee May Dairy Internship Award. Ranee May, who retired from UW-River Falls as Dairy Plant manager in 2011, in conjunction with the Animal and Food Science Department, established a fund to support students undertaking academic internships in the UWRF Dairy Plant. 

Granlund is a dairy science major with a food processing technology minor and will be a senior in the fall. She has considerable experience with dairy cattle which when coupled with this internship will give her a top-to-bottom industry perspective as she seeks employment as a quality assurance manager for a dairy plant upon graduation. 

Scoqui Guimaraes is a senior at the University of Campinas spending a year at UWRF as a member of the Brazilian Scientific Mobility Program. She is pursuing a food engineering major at her home institution and hopes to adapt U.S. dairy technology to many unique processing situations that arise in her home country. 

Both students will identify learning outcomes for their internship experience, and gather, analyze, and interpret data addressing some real-world dairy manufacturing problem under the guidance of Michelle Farner, current manager of the UWRF Dairy Plant. The students will acquire a minimum of 400 hours of in-plant training and work experience focused primarily on cheese and ice cream manufacture. Dairy industry manufacturers have consistently indicated a substantial need for previous hands-on experience among the individuals they hire into middle-management positions within their plants. 

Emeritus Faculty Associate May remains very active in the Midwest dairy industry. She conducts numerous training workshops regarding the manufacturing and food safety aspects of dairy processing and is highly regarded as a consultant by dairy plants throughout the region. 

For more information, email gary.onan@uwrf.edu or call 715-425-3704.