How Alesha Bergner '23 is sharing her purple pride as a new K-State alumni club leader
Alesha Bergner '23 may be living in the heart of Iowa State territory, K-State’s “Farmageddon”
rival, but she brought plenty of purple pride with her when she moved after college
to begin a new job as an agricultural researcher.
Bergner lives in Johnston, Iowa, and works as a seed processing specialist at Corteva
Agriscience. She recently reached out to the K-State Alumni Association about connecting
with other Wildcats and launching the new Des Moines Area K-Staters alumni club.
“K-State obviously played a huge role in the last four years of my life and also for
my entire existence, honestly,” she said. “I got the club started because I wanted
to have a place for K-Staters to gather, and there wasn't anything officially set
up through the Alumni Association yet. I knew it would be a lot of work, but I would
get support from the Alumni Association.”
Bergner grew up on her family’s farm outside of Pratt, Kansas, surrounded by purple
pride. Although she wasn’t pressured to make K-State her default choice for attending
college, she calls K-State her “second home” and knew it was the right fit for her.
“I chose K-State because I wanted a school that was really strong in agriculture and
in leadership and in music,” she said. “K-State had all of those.”
Bergner stayed busy during her time at K-State, building a sense of community and
exploring her future career path. She studied agricultural technology management,
with secondary majors in global food systems leadership and natural resources and
environmental sciences, as well as a minor in leadership studies. She also played
trombone in the K-State Marching Band and had a chance to travel to the 2022 Big 12
Championship and the Sugar Bowl; performed with the Cat Band (Basketball Pep Band)
and the K-State Symphony Orchestra; and volunteered with the campus Food Recovery
Network.
She said her days with the marching band are some of her best K-State memories, and
the game day rush of excitement and adrenaline is something she’ll never forget.
“Some of my best friends and some of my best ‘community’ was found in the marching
band,” she said, adding that the band was a great way for her to get invested in the
K-State family. “I think a university is a really special place to have people of
a lot of different backgrounds and a lot of different experiences coming together.
That was probably one of my favorite things I learned while at K-State, just the differences
in communities and the power that comes from bringing all of those people together
in one space.”
She moved to Iowa about a year ago to work at Corteva Agriscience’s research center
in Johnston. She works with seed product development and research, including data
collection and planting logistics. The company has locations across the globe, and
Bergner said it has been interesting to compare the different methods of agriculture
in different countries. In the future, she would like to get more involved in the
areas of corporate social responsibility and employee volunteerism.
After moving, she said she knew it would be important for her to build a sense of
community, since she didn’t have any connections. She searched for a K-State alumni
club but learned there was not currently a club available in Iowa.
She said that many of her leadership studies professors encouraged her when she was
thinking about starting an alumni club, including Mike Finnegan ’00, ’13, assistant
professor and director of K-State Strengths.
“I was visiting back home for a football game, and so he and I grabbed breakfast,
and it was a really cool opportunity for me to tell him, ‘Hey, I'm having this idea,
but these are some of the barriers that I'm hitting.’ And he was really encouraging
and insightful and energizing to just keep pushing, keep going with it.”
So far in 2025, the Iowa club has hosted several basketball watch parties, and Bergner
is looking forward to planning football watch parties for the fall. She’s also in
the process of forming a planning committee.
She said she’s grateful for the support of other K-State alumni club leaders from
across the country who have reached out to her and given her advice. Bonnie Ser with
the Las Vegas club encouraged her not to give up and to keep going, and Sean Moran
'92 with the Tulsa Cats overnight shipped a box of K-State supplies for her first
watch party.
Starting a brand new club can be intimidating, but for Bergner, it’s worth it. She
also hopes to get more young alumni involved.
“It is a really cool experience for you to reconnect to a community that played such
a big part in your life. I would encourage everyone to reach out and find other K-Staters
in their area,” she said. “The ones I've been able to meet here have been really incredible.
And so I'm really looking forward to football season, and for the chance for us to
spread the word a little bit more.”