Jeffrey J. Antoniewicz is feeling pretty comfortable with his rich undergraduate and internship experiences. In fact he looks very relaxed and tanned, as he stands out in the athletic turf field test plots at Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station.
Jeff participated in our summer research farm internship at the Rutgers P.E. Marucci Blueberry and Cranberry Research and Extension Center. Jeff felt the internship presented a good combination of farming fieldwork and laboratory experiences. And it’s not easy to impress good students like Jeff who come with strong life experiences, goals, work part time, and maintain a 3+ GPA! See, Jeff is related to Russo’s Fruit & Vegetable Farm in Tabernacle, NJ. He’s had a calling toward professional plant work from the time he was 5 – assembling vegetable packing baskets, working in the farm stand, and other farm responsibilities.
During his internship, he was exposed to all program areas at the farm. Jeff says he learned, “most every aspect of blueberry and cranberry culture, and how to set up experiments in field settings.” The most interesting facets of his experiences were “working with exotic cranberry germplasm collected for advancing plant breeding, plant pathology diagnosis, and learning innovative Integrated Pest Management practices.”
Jeff goes on to describe his undergraduate course work in Turf Management at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS) as “exciting,” and his professors, in particular Professor James Murphy, extremely inspiring.
So why is Jeff relaxed and tanned? He’s landed and begun a summer job helping manage athletic field turf for the Lakewood, NJ BlueClaws Minor League baseball team. Owned by the Philadelphia Phillies, the BlueClaws have moved 30 players into Major League play in 9 years. Jeff will be using his SEBS course experiences providing safe, beautiful, impeccably grown athletic fields.
Education: Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
Fields of Study: Plant Science
Hometown: Tabernacle, NJ
Internship: Marucci Blueberry and Cranberry Research and Extension Center
Position After Graduation: Athletic Field Turf Manager
