Ag Leadership- Highlights of Year #1

Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo

These seminars focus on communication and public speaking. We've learned about types of communication, how to facilitate group discussions and the role the media plays in communications. We also learned about the future of social networking (James Rickert likes this). Other lessons learned included how to think quickly on our feet, always keep your game face on and don't crack under pressure (thank you Dr. Joe Sabol!). These communication skills we learned have proved to be especially valuable in our Ag Leadership journey.

Another great experience at Cal Poly SLO was the Chumash Challenge- a hands on team building experience. One aspect of the Chumash Challenge was to get all members of our class over 'the wall,' a 14-foot high wall without anything other than ourselves (and our safety harnesses and helmets). This seemed like an impossible task, but with some persistence we figured out how to safely send all people over the top of the wall. What a great accomplishment for Class 39!

UC Davis

We spent some time at the state Capitol learning about how laws are created and the legislative process. Our class also split up one day and visited a variety of different servant leadership examples- some of the females in the class stayed overnight at the St. John's Shelter for Women and Children, others served the homeless at Loves and Fishes in Sacramento. My group went to the Stanford Community Center- a great example of how one person can help rally others in a community and provide a venue for both children and seniors, and everyone in between. The entire class converged upon Loaves and Fishes and had a great tour of the facility by Sister Libby.

Class 39 at Loaves and Fishes, Sacramento

We always seem to have some sort of 'Governmental Leaders Reception' in Sacramento, and get the opportunity to visit with people in leadership positions at California Deparment of Food & Ag, California Resources Agency and the California Department of Pesticicde Regulation to name a few. This is always a good opportunity to meet the faces behind the decision making process in Sacramento.

Cal Poly, Pomona

This seminar was an especially powerful one. We learned about prejudicial attitues, biculturalism, and even if Obama was a good example of the American Dream. Here we also focused on the inner self, Grace Flannery helped us through looking at our own character strengths (complete with our own life map). We toured a place called Ability First! which was a learning center for children with disabilities. We spent some time with the children, learning about autism and other disabilities first-hand. We went to the Puente Learning Center, a school for many low income people of all ages in East and South Los Angeles.

We had an amazing opportunity to have Paul Botello give us a personal tour of his elaborate murals located on various buildings spread throughout East Los Angeles. I could have stared at these murals for hours, but to have Mr. Botello go through what each and every image meant to him was an eye opening experience.

Another highlight of the Pomona seminar was the tour of Homeboy Enterprises, a place for ex-gang members to learn new job skills and get out of life in the ghetto. We had some great insight (in the form of a unexpected comedy show) from a few homies that were improving their lives. These guys were hilarious!

"Trip on this!"

Fresno State

This seminar helped prepare us for the national trip. We studied the Founding Fathers of our country, we were all assigned a variety of books to help prepare for this. We learned about the "American Virtue" and how at that formative time in America, the people here starting this country were determined. Their determination led them on a long boat ride here, there were no free lunches and their success was determined largely by their hard work. We learned about leadership gone awry... Jim Jones and the Kool-Aid comes to mind. Bill Jones talked about his experiences in the Republican party and his role in Pacific Ethanol. We had speakers talk about the plagues of the mind and "Romantic environmentalism." We sat like sponges in our seats and soaked up all of this information. After this seminar, Class 39 was prepared to conquer Washington, D.C.