Student Wants to Give Back to Community Through Agricultural Lending Career

As a first-generation college student from a small agricultural community in southeastern Missouri, Elyssa Schatz is preparing for a career that will let her put her education to work for the people and businesses that helped shape her.

When Schatz graduates in May with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture in Agricultural Business from the University of Arkansas, she plans to pursue a career in agricultural and commercial lending.

“I am originally from Campbell, Missouri, which is in the southeastern part of the state,” Schatz said. “I’m very familiar with the northeast Arkansas/southeast Missouri, upper Delta area. It’s a pretty, family-oriented region and a big agriculture community, which is where my interest in this degree program stems from.”

The Student

Schatz, 20, learned about agricultural lending as a teenager when she worked at the same bank as her mother. She hopes to combine her four years of banking experience with her education to support agricultural businesses, promote economic growth and serve the communities she knows.

The flexibility of the program allowed Schatz to continue gaining professional experience. She moved to Fayetteville for her senior year, continuing as an online student—except for one in-person class. Once there, she transferred employment from her hometown bank to the same position at a local branch of the same banking franchise. In addition, she also manages a personally owned online boutique, fulfilling apparel orders as they come in.

Nathan Kemper, associate professor in Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, offered extensive praise for Schatz’ academic and professional accomplishments, in particular spotlighting her value as a top student in the online degree program.

“I have worked with Elyssa through academic advising and degree planning,” he said. “She has consistently been thoughtful and proactive about her education and career goals. Our faculty recognized her as one of the top students in the program when she was nominated for an Agricultural Business Club Outstanding Student Award, a recognition I felt was very well deserved. I have also enjoyed seeing her connect her academic interests in agricultural finance and lending with a banking internship. She is a great example of a student using the flexibility of the online program, not simply to earn a degree but to build a clear path toward her career goals.”

Why This Degree Works for Her

The U of A’s online agricultural business program gave Schatz the opportunity to combine agriculture and business while continuing to work two full-time jobs. After beginning her college education at Arkansas Northeastern College in Blytheville, she researched programs that would let her attend classes while maintaining an already hectic work schedule.

For Schatz, the degree’s emphasis on risk management is particularly valuable as she prepares for a career in lending.

“Banks who are pursuing loan officers really love to see this degree,” she said. “They know that loans are risk. They require mitigation. It’s seeing how well you can predict your customers.”

What Comes Next

Schatz is already using what she is learning.

“You’re able to tie what you’ve learned from your educational journey to real-world problems that you see while you’re working,” she said. “As I am actively pursuing my education, I’m seeing it in my day-to-day life at my job.”

Schatz hopes to bring those experiences together after graduation as she returns to the agricultural communities she knows.

Balancing school with a full-time banking job and her own online boutique, where she designs and sells T-shirts, has required careful planning and attentive time management. Schatz said the online format and her ability to work at her own pace have helped her cope with her responsibilities.

“As far as finding hours in the day, it is tight, but it works,” she said. “I look at my assignments going into the week and think, ‘I need to get this, this, and this done because I have this coming up.’”

Schatz has been familiar with online education since middle school, when the COVID-19 pandemic moved her classes online. She found that learning at her own pace suited her.

Support, Mentorship

At the U of A, Schatz said professors and academic coaches have helped support her transition to being a fully online student from her community college in-person experience.

“The University of Arkansas professors have just been very helpful,” she said. “To tag on to that, the academic coaches as well have just been very helpful in transitioning from being a traditional student to just being solely online.”

As a first-generation college student, Schatz sees her educational experience as an opportunity to help younger members of her family navigate college.

“Neither one of my parents graduated from college,” she said. “My older sister also did not graduate. Being the first to do it, I’m kind of working out the ropes, figuring out what works and what doesn’t.”

The Degree

The BSA in Agricultural Business has been taught for some time as an on-campus degree but has recently been presented as an online degree option.

This program places considerable emphasis on applied business and risk-management skills relevant to agriculture, according to Kemper. Students can develop expertise in areas such as agricultural finance and lending, commodity markets and price risk, farm and agribusiness management, and agricultural law and legal risk. Students also have opportunities to connect what they are learning to their careers through internships and other applied experiences.

“We are continuing to expand our online offerings, particularly in agricultural law and legal risk management,” Kemper said. “We have two fully online concentrations. One is Agribusiness Risk Management, which was launched in Fall 2023 specifically for online students. The second is a pre-law concentration, which became available in Fall 2025 and can be completed either online or in person.  Agribusiness Risk Management emphasizes finance and risk management, so for Elyssa's goals in the finance and lending space, this concentration is a great fit.”

Within the Agribusiness Risk Management curriculum, students have flexibility to develop additional expertise through their course selections. Agricultural finance and lending is one such area, which is the direction Schatz has pursued. Students can also emphasize numerous fields specific to risk management, Kemper stated.

“Elyssa provides a particularly good example of how that flexibility can work,” he said. “Her interest in agricultural finance and lending has extended beyond her coursework, and she recently secured an internship with a banking franchise that complements the direction she has taken within the degree.”

The online format makes this degree accessible to students whose careers, families or locations may prevent them from moving to Fayetteville, Kemper stated.

“We have students coming to the program through a variety of pathways, including traditional college students, transfer students, and working professionals,” Kemper said. “We try to provide online students with the same individualized academic support we would provide students on campus. That includes working with them on degree planning, transfer credits, course selection, internships, and career preparation.

“The flexibility of the online format does not mean students are left to navigate the degree on their own.”

The Scholarship

Schatz is one of 39 recipients of the W.E. Manning Memorial Scholarship for online U of A students for the 2026-2027 academic year. The scholarship was created in 2018 to financially assist students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate online degree programs.

Her academic coach encouraged her to explore financial support options, leading her to apply for the Manning Scholarship, This is Schatz’ second year as a recipient.

“Scholarships have been a huge part of my education,” Schatz said. “When I graduate this May, I will be leaving university debt free.”

The scholarship has given this Missouri native confidence that others believe in her potential, Schatz explained.

“Being able to receive a scholarship that somebody donates toward is an incredible experience,” she said. “Receiving it once was great, but to receive it twice is just … It’s astounding to me. It has been very relieving to go through my education knowing that somebody believed in me enough to invest in me.”

Her Advice

“I could not recommend this program enough just because of how beneficial I feel like it has been to me during the last two years, but also how beneficial I feel it will be for me beyond graduation,” she said.

For students considering their own educational journey, Schatz has simple advice.

“My biggest piece of advice would be to ask the questions that you’re unsure of,” Schatz said. “I have learned so much and I have had so many good pieces of advice given to me by just asking questions of things I was unsure of.”

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