CASNR Alumni Interview with Brennan Costello

CASNR Author

04/29/2020 Added

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CASNR Student Assistant, Emma Hoffschneider, interviews Brennan Costello to hear how campus has changed since hewas in college.

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[00:00:00.000](upbeat guitar music)
[00:00:08.470]Thank you for taking your time
[00:00:10.160]to meet with me today and go over this interview.
[00:00:13.650]I guess our first question for you is,
[00:00:15.610]can you just tell us a little bit about yourself?
[00:00:18.550]Yeah, sure.
[00:00:19.480]So my name's Brennan.
[00:00:20.640]I'm recording right now from my outdoor office,
[00:00:22.560]which is my garage with the garage door open,
[00:00:24.610]so that's why I have kayaks and all this stuff in the back.
[00:00:27.300]I'm also next to my neighbors dog,
[00:00:28.930]so you might hear that as well during these questions.
[00:00:33.640]My name is Brennan Costello,
[00:00:34.730]I graduated in 2016 from UNL with a degree in Agribusiness.
[00:00:39.123]Right now, I actually didn't
[00:00:40.460]go very far from UNL and I work for the
[00:00:42.909]Anglar Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program
[00:00:44.670]on East Campus.
[00:00:45.840]We help student who want to build
[00:00:47.920]mission-driven enterprises.
[00:00:50.095]We're starting to help high school students and
[00:00:52.216]post-grad students and trying to really help
[00:00:55.460]Nebraska grow mission and purpose-driven enterprises.
[00:00:59.700]So I help as a staff member
[00:01:02.040]as a part of that program.
[00:01:03.320]I get to teach class,
[00:01:05.280]try to build partnerships for what we do.
[00:01:07.950]I also am about to finish my MBA from
[00:01:10.760]the University of Nebraska,
[00:01:11.650]which I'm excited about.
[00:01:12.990]I'll finish that,
[00:01:14.150]I've got one more class this summer
[00:01:15.635]then that will wrap up.
[00:01:17.900]Awesome.
[00:01:18.950]So Brennan,
[00:01:20.220]I know you just told us a little bit about yourself,
[00:01:22.060]but can you talk about where you grew up and
[00:01:23.949]why you inevitably chose to go to UNL?
[00:01:27.977]Yep.
[00:01:28.810]So I grew up in Gothenberg, Nebraska,
[00:01:32.350]small town right by the interstate.
[00:01:35.120]When I was leaving Gothenberg,
[00:01:37.890]and when I graduated high school,
[00:01:39.193]I was actually enrolled in UNO in Omaha.
[00:01:42.690]I was interested in design,
[00:01:44.840]I'm still interested in design,
[00:01:46.840]and I like to build things.
[00:01:48.230]So, I thought I wanted to be an architectural engineer,
[00:01:52.944]and UNO has an awesome program for that.
[00:01:56.770]After I was there for a little bit,
[00:01:57.860]I realized this wasn't a good fit for me
[00:01:59.720]and I wanted to get back into some sort
[00:02:01.320]of aspects of agriculture.
[00:02:03.160]And wanted to get to the University of Nebraska
[00:02:06.630]where I had a lot of friends were going.
[00:02:08.280]I knew that was going to be a better fit for me.
[00:02:10.170]I wanted a state college experience,
[00:02:12.920]a little bit more than UNO,
[00:02:14.250]and made the transition after a semester
[00:02:17.563]to end up at UNL which was a really good fit for me.
[00:02:21.200]Both are really good schools.
[00:02:22.260]I have nothing against UNO,
[00:02:23.968]UNL was just a great fit for me.
[00:02:25.760]East campus,
[00:02:27.010]got involved in FarmHouse,
[00:02:28.170]got involved in HRI,
[00:02:29.790]eventually got to be in Mortar Board,
[00:02:31.270]and it was a really, really good college experience.
[00:02:34.855]I learned a lot about myself,
[00:02:36.650]I grew a lot.
[00:02:38.000]Everyone in my family,
[00:02:39.340]except for my youngest sister now,
[00:02:40.830]has gone to UNL.
[00:02:42.150]So, it's part of a family here, as well.
[00:02:44.400]I was just comfortable here.
[00:02:45.990]I mean, I went through 4H and FFA
[00:02:48.137]and everything we did, you know,
[00:02:49.220]the state contests were on East Campus.
[00:02:51.847]So, I was here a lot, it felt like home.
[00:02:55.420]Definitely, UNL has that aspect of
[00:02:58.200]making it feel like home.
[00:02:59.710]I know you mentioned a few of your clubs
[00:03:01.986]and school activities that you were involved in,
[00:03:04.480]is there any else that you were in that you
[00:03:06.980]didn't mention just previously, now?
[00:03:09.310]I was involved in Angular which led to
[00:03:10.972]my position here and being able to continue
[00:03:13.780]to work for Anglar, which has been awesome.
[00:03:16.060]It's a really, really fun job
[00:03:18.330]which I enjoy being a part of.
[00:03:21.170]Those are probably the ones I was most involved in.
[00:03:23.297]Did a couple intramurals and stuff like that,
[00:03:26.570]but those were the main ones where I devoted my time.
[00:03:28.740]I loved being in FarmHouse.
[00:03:30.240]I loved being a part of the Greek system,
[00:03:32.540]especially on East Campus,
[00:03:33.440]it just fits super well.
[00:03:35.290]And in HRI, I'm actually still involved
[00:03:37.310]in an HRI alumni group.
[00:03:40.432]I try to keep helping that grow,
[00:03:41.670]just because it's full of great people.
[00:03:43.540]That's what I tried to do in college,
[00:03:44.640]was just find great people to be around.
[00:03:47.340]Anglar and HRI and FarmHouse
[00:03:49.620]kind of fit that mold for me and
[00:03:51.160]built a really good community around that.
[00:03:53.450]And then Anglar led to what I wanted to do in the future.
[00:03:55.860]So, I learned a lot more from
[00:03:57.484]the things I got involved in than class.
[00:04:00.053]I think class gives you a base understanding,
[00:04:02.560]kind of a foundation.
[00:04:03.770]But if you really want to figure what you want to do,
[00:04:05.280]you gotta go do internships and
[00:04:06.810]you gotta get involved in things,
[00:04:08.650]you gotta try things out.
[00:04:09.690]That's where you really learn if
[00:04:11.160]this is a fit for you or not in the real world.
[00:04:13.759]Definitely, and I think UNL does a great job
[00:04:16.560]of providing opportunities where students
[00:04:18.540]can get involved in different
[00:04:20.600]clubs and organizations on campus.
[00:04:22.470]That kind of put off of the lessons that
[00:04:24.120]they learn in classes.
[00:04:25.127]But, speaking about classes,
[00:04:27.250]did you by chance have a favorite class
[00:04:29.500]or a favorite professor that
[00:04:30.745]you just really enjoyed throughout your time?
[00:04:35.535]What I always tried to do was take my core classes,
[00:04:37.607]you know, a couple of those a semester.
[00:04:39.750]And then take 1 class that I always knew
[00:04:40.673]I was going to like.
[00:04:43.350]That class was always really different.
[00:04:45.800]So, I took a class with Howard Buffett Jr.,
[00:04:49.910]the grandson of Warren Buffett,
[00:04:51.630]and he has done a tremendous amount of work
[00:04:53.880]international in agriculture.
[00:04:56.865]And he taught a night class that is kind of
[00:05:00.740]taught sporadically.
[00:05:01.573]I don't know if he's teaching or not
[00:05:02.820]but I hope he is.
[00:05:04.253]And it was an awesome class to learn about
[00:05:07.060]social value investing.
[00:05:09.015]How the Buffett Organization thinks about
[00:05:12.630]the investments that they make.
[00:05:14.180]He was an awesome teacher,
[00:05:15.340]he knew us all by name, he was super engaging.
[00:05:18.080]That was great class.
[00:05:19.080]It was a really small class, loved it.
[00:05:22.690]Really was inspired by all of Tom Field's classes.
[00:05:25.210]Tom Field is the director of the Anglar program.
[00:05:28.690]But, his best skill is getting in front of you
[00:05:31.530]and making you think differently about your life.
[00:05:34.050]And then, puts that over the context of entrepreneurship
[00:05:36.960]and how you might use entrepreneurship as a vehicle
[00:05:39.150]to get you to where you want to go.
[00:05:41.200]So those were always some of my favorite classes.
[00:05:43.310]And then I tried to find some really interesting ones.
[00:05:45.010]I took a rock climbing class.
[00:05:46.520]I actually failed that class, I hate heights.
[00:05:49.459]I took a photography class.
[00:05:51.120]I had to fight to get in that class because
[00:05:52.520]I wasn't in the fine arts school,
[00:05:53.927]and I loved it.
[00:05:56.400]I don't really take that many pictures but
[00:05:58.030]I'd rather take something like that than take
[00:06:00.296]'The History of Rock' which I'm never going to put to use.
[00:06:03.520]But try to learn skills, something like that.
[00:06:05.300]So that's always what I tried to do.
[00:06:06.940]Specifically, I learned a lot from them.
[00:06:09.820]So you mentioned your first semester you went to UNO,
[00:06:12.910]then when you transferred you
[00:06:14.080]got involved with FarmHouse.
[00:06:15.880]Which, we know how the Greek system works.
[00:06:18.360]Did you ever live on East Campus?
[00:06:20.490]Either in Burr Hall, or did you live off campus
[00:06:23.850]once you got to UNL here?
[00:06:25.670]I lived close to campus,
[00:06:26.690]so I lived in FarmHouse all 4 years.
[00:06:28.340]So, just a quick walk to campus.
[00:06:30.680]I did spend a few nights in Burr Hall, though,
[00:06:34.839]through NAYI.
[00:06:35.950]I was involved in that so I spent some nights there.
[00:06:38.303]When I went to Pace for State 4H,
[00:06:40.280]I spent a few nights there.
[00:06:42.340]So I know Burr Hall very well,
[00:06:45.160]before it was torn down.
[00:06:46.700]But, I was very familiar with it.
[00:06:50.470]So, throughout you time at UNL,
[00:06:52.340]I'm sure you're like me.
[00:06:53.900]You have numerous memories and
[00:06:55.670]I know it might be hard to pick one.
[00:06:57.230]But, do you have a favorite memory on East Campus
[00:07:00.939]or you time as a student at UNL?
[00:07:06.310]This may be a really simple memory,
[00:07:07.990]but I really loved just going to class with my friends.
[00:07:11.187]I think that was just a really rare thing,
[00:07:12.770]when you get to do something like that.
[00:07:16.270]Like I said, we lived in FarmHouse, so,
[00:07:18.226]just valued the time of getting to talk to your friends
[00:07:20.060]and walk to class every day.
[00:07:21.120]That's really simplistic but
[00:07:23.060]it was a great value that I had, I think,
[00:07:25.960]walking through that.
[00:07:27.040]The meta-big thing that I really enjoyed through
[00:07:29.840]the Ag-College was going on the New Zealand trip.
[00:07:33.780]That's an awesome trip.
[00:07:34.930]If anybody out there is considering it, go!
[00:07:37.700]It was incredible.
[00:07:38.980]It's incredible to learn about that country
[00:07:40.333]and just spend so much time there,
[00:07:42.810]and then to get a really hands-on look at stuff.
[00:07:45.560]From wine, to sheep, to deer, to glaciers, to
[00:07:51.850]the really interesting way their dairy farms work.
[00:07:53.880]And how basically, the government got rid of subsidies
[00:07:56.760]and direct payments and they just had to figure it out.
[00:07:58.840]So it's a really entrepreneurial country, as well.
[00:08:01.854]So I loved that trip and I encourage everyone
[00:08:03.870]to go on that trip, as well.
[00:08:06.230]So, on thing that has definitely changed throughout
[00:08:09.000]the year is everybody's style and taste in music.
[00:08:13.140]So when you were going to school,
[00:08:15.160]was there a favorite song that whenever it came on
[00:08:18.028]you would karaoke the whole thing?
[00:08:20.890]Or anything that really stuck out to you there?
[00:08:22.690]Well,
[00:08:24.747]I think that there are songs that
[00:08:26.360]will make me think of college,
[00:08:28.000]especially weekends in college.
[00:08:29.690]But my friends and I loved 90's country.
[00:08:33.890]So, that's all we listened to really, 90's country.
[00:08:36.750]And the nice thing about it is,
[00:08:37.650]it doesn't change 'cause it's all over.
[00:08:40.070]But, we loved Garth Brooks and going to
[00:08:43.040]a lot of the concerts downtown and
[00:08:44.730]the ones on East Campus.
[00:08:46.800]Yeah, it's just 90's country.
[00:08:49.020]I just always have loved it and
[00:08:50.550]I remember a lot of, just, times with friends
[00:08:53.270]blasting old country songs.
[00:08:55.190]Or listening to really sad country songs
[00:08:59.720]at the end of the night, just for fun.
[00:09:03.040]Yeah, so, that's what my friends focused on or listened to.
[00:09:07.110]And to play off the previous question,
[00:09:09.220]did you have a favorite movie or
[00:09:12.130]a favorite TV show that you loved to watch on end?
[00:09:16.550]So in college I discovered "The Office",
[00:09:19.560]and at first I hated it.
[00:09:21.452]I thought it was really weird, I dunno.
[00:09:25.237]Friends would watch it in FarmHouse and
[00:09:27.400]it wasn't until they finally convinced me
[00:09:29.150]you have to get past the first 4 episodes.
[00:09:31.750]And now it's my favorite show.
[00:09:32.740]I don't watch much else on Netflix but
[00:09:35.030]I'll just replay "The Office", like,
[00:09:36.870]I'll just get done with "The Office" and
[00:09:38.469]then just start it again.
[00:09:39.595]It's my favorite and I came to it in college, yeah.
[00:09:44.440]And when it comes to game day, what is your favorite?
[00:09:47.930]Are you a Runza guy or Valentino Pizza all the way?
[00:09:52.950]Always get pizza, especially in the stadium, yeah.
[00:09:56.260]I eat Runza all the time but Valentino's is, like,
[00:09:58.470]pretty much only eat that on game day.
[00:10:01.020]And, what piece of advice do you have
[00:10:03.710]for the class of 2020 graduates?
[00:10:12.670]What I would say, I'm sure many people have said this,
[00:10:16.230]it's crazy, this kinda sucks, especially for the graduates.
[00:10:19.410]All of a sudden, it's over, right?
[00:10:21.390]And you have to move on very quickly.
[00:10:23.600]I would say the most important thing for me
[00:10:25.920]when I got done with college,
[00:10:27.180]is that you have to learn to be really intentional.
[00:10:30.906]Be intentional about what you want to do with your career.
[00:10:33.690]You know, you spend 4 years in kind of what I call
[00:10:38.330]you're swimming around.
[00:10:40.007]In high school, you know, for like 12 or 13 years
[00:10:43.140]you're in a boat and you're just sailing down river.
[00:10:45.190]And you don't really get a lot of choice about
[00:10:46.650]what you do, what you study, what your choices are.
[00:10:48.590]You're under your parents roof.
[00:10:50.090]And then when you get to college, you get to jump out.
[00:10:51.640]You get to figure out who you are and
[00:10:52.983]what you want to do.
[00:10:53.816]And you get to try a lot of things, and
[00:10:54.990]it's in a safe environment,
[00:10:55.920]but you get to make a lot of decisions.
[00:10:58.310]You know, that part of the river is now over.
[00:11:00.080]You need to get back in the boat and
[00:11:01.360]be intentional about which way you're going.
[00:11:03.660]So be intentional about the career choices
[00:11:05.510]they want to choose.
[00:11:06.930]Know that the first job you take is not
[00:11:09.050]what you'll be doing for the rest of your life, at all.
[00:11:11.930]Just pick a short-term one that seems
[00:11:14.690]really interesting to you, or you really love your boss.
[00:11:18.830]Pick those jobs because you'll learn the most from them.
[00:11:22.040]And then be super intentional about
[00:11:23.690]the people you spend your time with,
[00:11:26.050]who you communicate with, how you reach out to them.
[00:11:28.103]Because in college, it's easy.
[00:11:29.880]You're all geographically together,
[00:11:31.750]you have all this free time.
[00:11:33.100]Now, everybody has to get jobs and
[00:11:34.960]has to start figuring, you know,
[00:11:36.520]a lot more responsibility is gonna come.
[00:11:39.389]And people are going to move all over the place,
[00:11:40.830]so it's really easy to lose contact super quick.
[00:11:43.620]So you have to be really intentional about
[00:11:45.760]continuing to build those relationships.
[00:11:48.450]A group of college buddies and I
[00:11:49.640]have a phone call every Sunday.
[00:11:51.170]Just 'cause we wanted something that
[00:11:53.060]would just keep us together for an hour,
[00:11:54.930]and it's been wonderful.
[00:11:58.196]But you have to be intentional,
[00:11:59.029]you have to set those things up.
[00:12:00.900]They don't just happen anymore.
[00:12:03.334]So that's what I was say is,
[00:12:04.167]when you're leaving college,
[00:12:05.410]you're not going to know all the answers.
[00:12:08.470]Hopefully you had a great experience, especially at UNL.
[00:12:11.270]But you have to be intentional and
[00:12:12.530]kind of choose the things you want to do,
[00:12:14.530]the directions you want to go down.
[00:12:16.550]Otherwise, it's really easy to drift and
[00:12:18.160]not really find a path.
[00:12:20.068]So, just be intentional.
[00:12:21.150]Take the next, you know, short-term goal and go after that.
[00:12:25.070]And be super intentional about the relationships
[00:12:27.186]that you have, is what I would say.
[00:12:29.590]Well, that concludes our interview.
[00:12:31.610]So, thank you for taking your time this afternoon
[00:12:34.343]and the best about your time through UNL.
[00:12:38.330]DO you have any last words or remarks
[00:12:40.060]that you'd like to include?
[00:12:42.320]Just go Big Red!
[00:12:43.750]We want to see all the student's very soon.
[00:12:45.460]We're excited for when things open back up.
[00:12:47.850]So, know that we're excited
[00:12:50.580]when this whole thing wraps up
[00:12:51.487]'cause we want to get things back to normal again.
[00:12:53.781](upbeat guitar music)

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CASNR Alumni Interview with Brennan Costello

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