Mason Shaw

Background

About Mason Shaw

While studying Plant & Soil Science at North Carolina State University, I work for NC States Wild Species Peanut Breeding program. I am the senior research assistant at the program while working for Dr. Tom Stalker. I enjoy this position because it allows me to work outside in the greenhouse while watching and taking care of peanut plants. It also allows me to see how my hard works pays off and how the different stages that a plant goes through its life cycle. While working for Dr. Stalker, I learned how to cross breed peanut plants by emasculating and pollinating the different plants. This cross pollinating helped me realize how researchers work to provide the best seed for farmers worldwide. I first learned how to take care of plants by working on my family farm. On the farm, I experienced many different jobs like running the seed planter, spraying the crops, while occasionally performing general maintenance on the tractors, planters, sprayers. While working on the farm was my main job, I also performed work on Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to keep the farms financials, average crop yields, and average expense reports. While working on the farm is one of my interests, another interest is hunting around the woods in my hometown. Hunting allows me to be outside and enjoy all the beauty of the outdoors. It also gives me the chance to work on my reliance skills to see if I would be able to survive solely based on my actions.