Alumni Spotlight: Wesley Lickus ’17

Meet Wesley Lickus ‘17, an Environmental Science major from Maine. Wes started working on the farm the first semester of his sophomore year and from then on he was hooked. He worked until graduation and for half a summer before his junior year as well. Before Dickinson, he’d never worked on a farm but had a great appreciation for the local farmers where he grew up in Maine. Wes loved going to farmers markets with his family and felt a connection to them growing up. Wes says he felt very welcomed at the farm when he visited, even as a complete stranger and immediately began his application to work there afterwards.

After graduation, Wes moved to Boston where he started working for a technology and manufacturing company as a member of their Associate Development Program. The program is set up to give recent undergraduate and graduate students experience in a business setting by rotating through departments for about 2 years. So far, Wes has rotated through the supply chain team to learn about raw material sourcing, the environmental & sustainability team where he helped publish the company’s first sustainability report, and he is currently in HR managing internal communications. Wes says that the farm taught him how to work hard to meet deadlines, the importance of efficiently completing a task before moving on, and how great it is to work with a team. Ultimately, Wes wants to focus on sustainability in some way in his future career pursuits. He has learned a lot about sustainability and how it relates to business in his current job and would like to keep expanding on it moving forward.

Wes enjoys photography (check out some of his photos in the CSE office if you’re on campus!), sailing, running, and hiking the White Mountains. His favorite farm memory is of cantaloupe harvest day one summer when it was really hot with clear skies. Everyone needed a break and luckily a crew member had picked a cantaloupe that had been bitten by a critter. The crew sliced it up for a snack and Wes claims to this day he has not eaten a better tasting melon.