From Intern to Data Specialist: How Akiptan is Supporting the Next Generation of Agriculture Stewards!

Akiptan is proud to highlight our youth internships and externships and how this initiative and how it is supporting the next generation of leaders. This month we are highlighting Kinzee Peterson, who began her first internship at Akiptan in the summer of 2024 and then followed up with a second internship in the summer of 2025 which led to her current role as a Data Specialist. In her role as Data Specialist, Kinzee helps to organize and manage data that supports the organization's mission to strengthen agriculture across Indian country.

Kinzee is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe where she grew up on her family's ranch. This background alongside her passion for numbers, has inspired her eagerness for agriculture development. Kinzee is currently pursuing a degree in Business Administration with a specialization in Accounting and Agribusiness, and her academic dedication has earned her a place on the Dean's List at Black Hills State University. The team at Akiptan understands the importance and dedication it takes to complete higher education and is grateful to be able to tailor programs and positions that support the youth interested in agriculture.

Growing up on a ranch has been a huge part of Kinzee’s life and she has always had goals to work in the agriculture industry, which encouraged her to apply as an intern. She thought that the internship opportunity would be great and would combine both her background in agriculture and her passion for numbers, so she pursued the opening. Kinzee believes that the numbers represent real stories, for example with producers, ranching and numbers can tell what impacts are being made.

When it comes to working alongside the Akiptan team, Kinzee has a good deal of appreciation for her coworkers. Everyone on the team is passionate about the impact of Akiptan, and they truly want producers to succeed. During her first internship, she was given the chance to travel to agriculture conferences and took on the opportunity to grasp an understanding of the organization. She traveled to Minneapolis, Minnesota with the Executive Director, Skya and Program Officer, Justine for her first data impact convening. This opportunity was important in helping her to understand how data helps to fund the work of Akiptan, the basics of networking and also the importance of how the data represents the organization. She was also invited to attend the Intertribal Agriculture Council youth summit in North Dakota and had the opportunity to present on Akiptan’s work with the Senior Program Officer, Dawn E. Lebeau and fellow intern Elijah while also networking with fellow youth leaders in the agriculture field. 

This spring during Akiptan’s internship advertising period, Kinzee was asked by a student who was considering applying, what the Akiptan internship was like? Her reply to the student was that they should consider the opportunity because they will learn about a variety of things like: personal growth, financials, lending, networking, programming and will gain hands-on skills that cannot be taught in the classroom. 

Throughout her two internships, Kinzee grew her understanding of financial literacy with other interns from across the country and has been able to put the knowledge of balance sheets and cash flows to use in both business and her personal life. Kinzee offers her thanks for all of the different components of the internships, specifically becoming more comfortable with public speaking at conferences. 

In 2025, Kinzee became Akiptan’s Data Specialist and she says that when it comes to data work, she affirms that attention to detail is a big thing, because when handling reports and numbers accuracy is vital. She has also learned important financial skills when working on balance sheets and numbers in the loan department, to which she says “ these are skills that you don’t learn in the classroom, they are real life hands on things you learn.”  During her time as an intern Kinzee also had the opportunity to learn about the Program side of Akiptan and was introduced to social media content creation and how posting on social media invites producers to the resources, programming and initiatives. While working in the role of Data Specialist, Kinzee is proud of the data projects she has worked on and is excited about showing the impact of Akiptan while organizing the data. She feels proud that her work is supporting the loan team, so that they are able to focus on the success of their clients. Kinzee is thankful for the two internships, because they both aligned perfectly with her goals and future. 

To date the internship initiative has supported a handful interns from across the country in the agriculture field and we look forward to continuing our work with the next generation of agriculture stewards. To learn more about Akiptan’s internship and youth initiatives, please email dawn@akiptan.org.