Shannon Herlihy ‘18 never thought she’d find herself saying the phrase, “I work in big cheese,”—a phrase that, she jokes, brings up the image of a towering Manhattan office building made up entirely of Swiss cheese, with holes for windows and little worker mice running around the halls. In reality, her job as a Sales Associate at Forever Cheese is far more meaningful as a result of how UNC Asheville prepared her for a career rooted in food systems.“UNC Asheville provided me with the knowledge to support an understanding of our food systems that encompass the land, the people, and the interconnectedness of both,” she says.