Leyla Kazemzadehpournaki

I have been working in agriculture and biosystem engineering for more than 10 years, beginning with my bachelor's degree and continuing through my master's program where I worked as a teaching assistant and research assistant. I am currently in my second year as a PhD student at South Dakota State University in Brookings, and I expect to graduate next year. My career path has been diverse - before fully committing to academia in my field, I worked as a mathematics and physics teacher, then as a Turkish language teacher, and also in international connection management for a company for one year. After the pandemic, I moved to Cyprus to pursue my master's degree, where I worked in international communication between students and customers. I even tried working as a banker for 2 months, but quickly realized that position did not fit for me. That experience helped me decide to continue my education in my area, which led me to come to the USA to study for my PhD. I am an active member of several professional organizations related to agriculture and food processing, including IFT membership, ISP membership, Sigma, and ASABE. My most notable achievement so far has been learning to believe in myself and improve myself without judging or paying attention to anyone - this self-improvement has been a great achievement for me during these days.