The Inauguration

Class 39 in Monterey

I’m officially in. I got the letter. I’m now a member of Class 39 of the California Agricultural Leadership Program. What did I just get myself into?

The Inauguration was in Monterey. This first seminar came at a busy time for me, during my organic strawberry plant harvest and shipping season. It was going to be tough to be away from reality, but I knew it was necessary to detach from work to get the most out of this program. I couldn’t sleep the night before, I was very nervous. I was about to embark on a journey into the unknown.

My wife Laura and I left early from the ranch in Bella Vista, and didn’t see the sun come up until halfway down the Sacramento Valley. On the drive down, I decided to go slightly off the beaten path and drive through Watsonville. I knew the exact location of a freshly planted field of my strawberry plants. I pulled over next to the field, and looking at the crowns gave me a sense of familiarity. I had grown these plants up at Prather Ranch, and images of the harvesting, working in the trim shed in Redding, and the loading of the trucks helped reduce some of my stress. Here was a field of my accomplishments, and this helped give me a little confidence to walk into this new journey with my head held high.

Before we knew it, Laura and I were eating lunch with my new classmates and their spouses. I could see how nervous everyone else was, and this provided me with a small amount of relief. I wasn’t the only one who was completely out of their element!

Our class soon was inundated with a multitude of speakers. We were exposed to a variety of information at this first seminar- focusing on the inner (understanding self), the outer (understanding how to lead others) and the global (understanding the inter-related nature of today’s issues). At one point, someone had said, “Look around, your classmates will be like family to you at the end of this fellowship.” I didn’t realize how true that statement would become.

The second day of seminar we took our first field trip to the Senior Citizen Center in Watsonville. Our speaker, Mas Hashimoto, provided a riveting first-hand account of the Japanese internment during World War II. His powerful accounts on how the Japanese were rounded up like cattle and moved to regional “camps” were shocking. The discrimination they experienced because of their ethnicity was a disgrace.

This speaker showed me a different perspective that I had never considered before. Ag Leadership has taught me to always look at a variety of perspectives on every issue before taking a stance, and this was a powerful first lesson.

I had completed my first step in my Ag Leadership journey.