Sydney Gainey Jalali serves as one of Edgecombe County Center’s dedicated Agricultural Extension agents. As the Center’s Field Crops and Pesticide Coordinator, Jalali takes great pride in helping farmers and producers find solutions, and sometimes even innovations, in their line of work.
Originally hailing from Pitt County, Jalali says that her journey into the world of agriculture began at NERSBA, an institution that has consistently produced the next generation of large scale cultivators and Agriscience professionals.
After graduating from the NERSBA Early College in 2019, Jalali continued her higher education at East Carolina University. However, she quickly found that life as an ECU pirate left some things to be desired.
“I initially started at East Carolina University but I quickly realized that it wasn’t quite what I wanted,” Jalali muses. “2020 was when COVID kicked off so everything was really chaotic and it had a role to play in those feelings. So I decided to apply to Mount Olive for a different experience.”
Indeed, Jalali attended Mount Olive College where she pursued an Ag Business degree, a path that was unsurprisingly inspired by her time at NERSBA. Notably, her time at both institutions would end up leading her down a unique career path that none in her family had ever pursued.
“Of course, a big influence on my decision to pursue Ag Business was of course NERSBA. At the same time, nobody in my family had ever pursued anything in agriculture before,” she says. “I’m the first one of my family to really do anything related to that. So in a way, it’s pretty cool to be on my own unique little journey.”
Naturally, her unique path gave her some glimpses into a few jobs that not many get a chance to see.
“I knew I wanted to do something in Ag but I didn’t really know what,” she says. “At the same time, I got a chance to do a few interesting internships while I was at college. I did a few different jobs and I landed an internship with a private local chemical company… They were interesting experiences in to find out what I wanted to do long time.”
As she tells it, that particular experience, which put her right in the thick of grower’s daily toil, solidified her decision to be more hands-on and work alongside
“I learned a lot being right out there in the field,” she says. “It really helped me to figure out that I wanted to work in the field crop side of the industry… There’s some people that want to get involved with the animal side of things, but that wasn’t for me… I knew I wanted to be more involved in large-scale production.”
Significantly, Mount Olive also introduced her to the world of agriculture extension and how she could use her skills and focus her passions to aid others.
“I ended up finding out a lot more about cooperative extension what they do during my last year,” she recalls. “It wasn’t long before I figured that that was the direction I really wanted to go. I made it my goal to become a field crops agent and I’m proud to say that that’s exactly what I do now.”
Indeed, Jalali now serves as Edgecombe County Center’s Field Crops and Pesticide Coordinator, a post she is occupied since blank.
“Collectively, we work for NC State University. We do research and we connect the things we learn and achieve in Raleigh and bring it to our growers locally across the East,” Jalali says. “It’s a lot of fun because honestly, it changes every day. Half of the time I’m out of the office, sometimes I’m inside, it all really depends on the season… I feel like my job is a lot more exciting than the average person’s job and honestly I enjoy that.”
Aside from her work out in the field, Jalali is currently enrolled in NC State’s Masters program, something that is sure to provide her with more knowledge and opportunities to expand upon the good work she is already doing.
“Right now I’m in the Masters program at NC state for field crops, so I’m doing some research in peanuts with our peer specialist. Edgecombe County is one of the top producing counties in the state for peanuts, so it’s a good opportunity grow my knowledge and be better at what I do,” she says. “Farmers have a lot of issues that they are facing and a lot are having trouble making ends meet…so I’m certainly interested in getting more involved in the financial and regulatory side of things… It’s why I’m learning all I can and doing all I can to make a difference.”
