Saturday 28 May 2016

Kia Ora! An Introductory Post

Written by McKenna Pierce


Welcome to the official 2016 BuzzTeam blog for the Agriculture and Environment third of Massey University's  National Expedition and Internship Program!

My name is McKenna Pierce, and I am from Burns, Tennessee. I am excited for the opportunity to not only be on this once in a lifetime trip, but also to be the BuzzTeam Blogger! This first post is just a little bit about myself, but there will be many more to follow that include stories from everyone in the program!

As previously stated, I am from Burns, Tennessee. It's about 40 minutes West of Nashville, as the crow flies. I am entering my junior year at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (Go Vols!) majoring in Agriculture Education and minoring in Forestry.  I am a member of the Theta chapter of Sigma Alpha, a professional Agricultural sorority, as well as the Christian Student Center and Collegiate FFA. Back home, I live on a family farm where we have a variety of livestock, including Angus cattle, horses, chickens, and a couple of ducks.

A few interests of mine include: spending money on concert tickets (especially if it's Allen Stone or Needtobreathe playing), laughing way too much at internet humor, and telling really corny jokes.

Growing up, and presently, my favorite movies were the Lord of the Rings trilogy. So you could imagine how excited I got when I found out my Big Sister in Sigma Alpha had been to New Zealand the previous summer on this trip, and not only got to see Middle Earth, but also learned a lot about the country itself and its agricultural industry (while receiving credits for school!) I knew then and there that I had to go. So after lots of stress, a few glitches in American Airlines computer systems, and 24 hours behind my original plan,  here I am about to embark on what I know will be some of the best weeks of my life.

To quote, "I'm going on an adventure!"