F3 Innovate celebrates TerraTech25 success
F3 Innovate (F3i) is proud to announce the success of its TerraTech25 program, which provided transformative experiences for 20 talented undergraduate students with hands-on opportunities with 12 industry partners across five counties. The program not only clarified career paths for these students, but also fostered invaluable skills and industry connections.
Sinehan Ezhilmuthu, a Milano Technical Group intern from UC Merced, said, "Coming here really cleared those doubts. I understand where agtech is and where I can impact it."
Christina Nguyen, Rainmaker.Earth intern from UC Merced, shared that the program "showed—even as an environmental engineer—you can go into this field and make an impact in this industry that needs more technological advancements."
Morelia Vierya Santana, Fresno State TerraTech25 intern, noted that through the program she discovered that “as an ag business major, I realized that creative storytelling is an actual path I can go into when it comes to the agriculture industry."
TerraTech25 bridged academia and industry, with placements that were interdisciplinary in nature and attracted applicants from 41 college programs, underscoring the value of interdisciplinary collaboration. UC Merced’s Jasmine Camacho, a Valley Eco intern, said the importance of cross sectional collaboration, whether that’s between farmers and ecologists or researchers and a bigger community, creates and molds a more sustainable future. “Conversations are necessary, and it's been very cool to see how those conversations are had and how they're informed and how they're molded to create actual solutions,,” Camacho said.
"By hiring interns,” Umida AG host Joseph Gallegos said, “we’re able to show new minds some innovations that we’ve already developed and let them run with it.”
Drawing on the impact interns can make, Sunburst Ag Research & Innovation Center CEO Srini Krishnamoorthy said, "They come out with some fresh ideas, get excited, and then inspired to bring new ideas." Similarly, UC Cooperative Extension Mariposa Regenerative Agriculture program host, Sara Rosenberg, emphasized the importance of giving young people that direct experience to work alongside farmers. “That's going to really help to bridge that gap that we have in our culture right now," said Rosenberg.
As F3i moves toward recruitment for TerraTech26, the key to long-term success is a sustained effort. With the majority of hosts reporting that they’d recommend their summer F3i TerraTech25 intern for future employment opportunities, F3i is certain that 2026 will be another success.
Additionally, F3i is further engaging college and university students with its Data Challenge: Predicting Frost Risk in the Central Valley. In this program, students have the opportunity to train machine learning models on real Central Valley weather data to predict frost conditions six, 12, and 24 hours in advance. Participants in this challenge will be at the forefront of agriculture and have opportunities to present to leaders within the sector. F3i seeks to continue investing in the region and building the intellectual infrastructure of tomorrow by giving students the ability to innovate and make real change today.
Applications for the upcoming TerraTech26 cohort for interested undergraduate students in the region are now open.
For more information about F3i's talent programs, email talent@f3innovate.org.