By Marlon Morgan
When you grow up in South Carolina as a member of the Rawl family, two things are pretty certain: You’re going to be indoctrinated into the family farming business and you’re going to attend Clemson University.
Take Chloe Rawl for instance. Growing up in Lexington, Rawl got a taste of every aspect of farming, from the intensive manual labor part to the business side of things. And with both parents having received degrees from Clemson, she was well-versed in what it means to be a Tiger. So, it was no surprise she too decided to attend Clemson.
This May, Rawl will become the 33rd member of her family to receive a degree from Clemson, with hers being in agribusiness.
“A good portion of those is from the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences,” Rawl said. “I think my family’s first graduate was in the 1950s. Ever since then, we’ve just been involved in Clemson and have loved the University. We work with them a lot. It’s really cool to me because it feels bigger than just a graduation.
“I didn’t have to go to college to do what I want to do because my family farms. But I wanted to go to college and my parents supported that because they had gone themselves. They wanted me to get what they got so I’m really grateful for it.”
Rawl’s family are the owners of WP Rawl which that started as a small farm in Gilbert in the 1920s run by Walter and Ernestine Rawl. It eventually became Walter P. Rawl and Sons, Inc. and is a large operation specializing in leafy greens and specialty vegetables, with operations in South Carolina, Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania.
After graduation, Rawl will return home to become the 11th family member to work fulltime with the business, which employs about 750 people. She will be a part of the fourth generation of Rawl’s to work for the company.
Rawl has been surrounded by family members during her time at Clemson as well. Her younger sister Meryn is a junior graphic design major. She also has three cousins at Clemson.
One of the things she has enjoyed most about the agribusiness program is the student diversity. Some grew up working on farms like her. Others became interested later and want to learn all that farming entails.
“It’s a hard job, manual labor and worrying about the company year-to-year because weather, disease, anything can take it out,” Rawl said. “You have to be a very hard-working, optimistic person, while also being able to take risks.
“It’ s also cool to be with the kids who have no idea about ag. They just really found an interest in it at the young age of 18. To care enough about it and to want to go into business with it and to realize it’s hard, but they still want to continue with it, I think that’s really cool. People who do have the background knowledge help them and share the experiences that they have.”
She went onto say that those students are usually the ones who grasp the theoretical concepts a lot easier because they don’t have the common knowledge about agribusiness.
The program also taught Rawl how to handle adversity as professors put her through a range of challenging situations.
“It’s just a completely different way to think about farming than I’ve ever had, but it was really good for me,” she said. “When it comes down to numbers and business decisions, that is how farming is thought of. There’s data and math and a lot of thought behind the decisions.”
For the past three summers, Rawl has had a chance to bring some of her newfound knowledge to the farm as she worked alongside her father, Ashley Rawl, vice president of sales, marketing and product development at Walter P. Rawl and Sons, Inc.
She created spreadsheets on harvesting projections and harvest estimations, costs and yields.
“She provides great feedback and great insight from her perspective, which I think challenges me,” Ashley Rawl said. “It challenges others in our business. I tell her all the time, this is work but the most important thing is you’re my daughter and our love for one another, that’s what really matters.”
Ashley, a 1994 Clemson graduate of the agribusiness program, is proud not only that Chloe wants to return to the farm but also that she has followed in his footsteps to Clemson.
“Just her perseverance and wanting to and having the passion to follow the agricultural footsteps to help produce and provide food and fiber for America, it’s just super exciting,” he said. “We’ve worked very closely with the Cooperative Extension Service over the years to further advance South Carolina agriculture and the nation’s agriculture.”
When Rawl returns home to work, she will rotate through various business departments, including transportation, sales, finance, human resources, field operations and food safety, working closely with a non-family member mentor. She has not been assigned a farm location yet.
“I’ve always grown up hearing people talk about how good of a person my grandfather was and what he did for the community, and my great-granddaddy,” Rawl said. “The road my family lives on is literally his name. I’m just very proud of all of that. I wanted that for myself. I have a passion for farming. Farmers are like a dying breed and it’s changing every day. People think of farming as red barn, cows, chickens and goats, not like an industry. Farming is very much an industry.”
Source : clemson.edu