(08/25/25) CROWLEY, La. — Bryce Trahan is no stranger to agriculture. He grew up on a rice, crawfish and cattle farm in Forked Island and participated in 4-H and FFA.

But the recent Kaplan High School graduate still found plenty to learn at an internship this summer at the LSU AgCenter H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station.

“It’s been eye-opening,” he said. “I come from an agricultural background, and it’s just cool to see how different it is over here and how precise it is.”

Trahan was selected for the Charles and Rose Broussard Internship, which is named for a Vermilion Parish couple who worked tirelessly to improve agriculture. The program was established in 2020 with a gift from the Broussard family, and the first intern was chosen in 2021.

The program is open to high school and college students. Recipients have the choice of working at the rice station near Crowley, the Iberia Research Station near Jeanerette or the Dean Lee Research and Extension Center near Alexandria.

Trahan applied for the program with the encouragement of the Broussard family and Emma Stelly, the 2024 intern. He is starting classes at McNeese State University this fall and wants to become an agricultural engineer.

Trahan was paired with Adam Famoso, the station director and rice breeder, for his internship. He requested to work in the breeding program, thinking it would be a fun, hands-on experience.

That’s exactly what he got. He split his time between the lab, where he helped with genetic analyses, and the field. He harvested rice, applied fertilizer and staked rows of field trials.

He enjoyed working with specialized research farm equipment, especially the station’s combine. Because it’s used to harvest research plots, it’s smaller than combines used on commercial farms and is usually ridden by two people, one of whom is tasked with collecting seed samples as the rice is cut — a job that Trahan got to try.

“I had never seen that before,” he said. “It was really interesting to see how it worked and how different it was. When you’re riding in a big combine, you don’t have another person riding with you to catch a sample.”

Exposing students to the intricacies of agricultural research is one of the goals of the internship program. Even those like Trahan who come from farming backgrounds can benefit from this broader perspective, said Kurt Guidry, assistant station director and coordinator of the internship program.

“Research differs from typical agricultural production,” Guidry said. “They see what’s involved in conducting the research that producers use on a daily basis in their operations.”

Research requires painstaking attention to detail and lots of hard work, Famoso said. Using high-tech tools in the lab is only part of it. Many days are consumed by less-than-glamorous responsibilities like hand-pulling weeds or dealing with equipment breakdowns.

“A lot of the same issues that a farmer would face, we face,” Famoso said.

Famoso and Guidry both said Trahan’s work ethic allowed him to excel at these kinds of tasks, making him an asset to the station during its busy season.

“We need student workers. We need people to help during the summer, so it’s filling that void,” Guidry said. “But the bigger picture is we need people interested in being in agriculture and agricultural research. The premise for what the family wanted to do is try to spark the fire of whoever got it to really make agriculture a career for them.”

Trahan believes the experience will help him as he begins college and builds his career. He said he would “100% recommend” applying for the internship.

“Even if you don’t want to be a farmer, if you’re not interested in agriculture, I’d still recommend it because there’s a lot of stuff you can learn,” he said.

Bryce Trahan, the 2025 recipient of the Charles and Rose Broussard Internship, stands in a greenhouse at the LSU AgCenter H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station. A native of Forked Island, Trahan recently graduated from Kaplan High School and now is a freshman at McNeese State University. He hopes to become an agricultural engineer. Photo by Olivia McClure/LSU AgCenter

Intern Bryce Trahan, left, and Adam Famoso, rice breeder and director of the LSU AgCenter H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station, talk while examining young rice plants in a tray. Photo by Olivia McClure/LSU AgCenter