15 minute read
Alumni Perspective: Historical Connections
BY LIZA ROBERTSON
Mike Fitch, Class 3
International Seminar: Taiwan, Phillipines, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan / 1975 Historical Connection: Traveling to China shortly after normalization of relations
When Class 3 fellows traveled to China in 1975 for their international seminar, they were one of the first five American groups to enter the country after the normalization of relations with the United States. Due to logistical reasons, only 20 individuals were allowed to travel with Class 3—19 fellows and Dean Brown—for the China portion of the seminar. Mike Fitch was part of the group and recalls they were at first apprehensive about traveling to China and fearful they would be severely restricted. However, once they arrived they felt comfortable in the country and found their hosts to be very amenable. The group’s request to visit people’s homes and farms was respected and they were surprised by what they found.
Q: What did you learn about China during your international travel seminar? The trip was a surprise in many regards. First of all, the fact that we were able to be accepted into China was incredible. We learned that the primary reason we were allowed in was because they were thirsty and anxious to hear about agriculture in the United States and in particular in California. They asked a number of pertinent questions and I felt it was a good dialogue.
They were very industrious people and, frankly, they were much healthier than anticipated based on what we knew about communist governments. I felt their best ambassadors were the children we met. They were all seemingly very happy and healthy. I came away with the impression that they were pretty content with communist rule and the idea of letting government make their decisions for them because we found that the basics were taken care of. At the same time, I felt there were small indications that they did miss their freedom. The Chinese government felt everyone was equal, but in reality, the individuals were trying to be unique. The clothing was all black and the same, but every once in awhile, we would find someone wearing something that set them apart. The bicycles were all identical too, but some tried to make theirs unique. We came away with the feeling that they still did want some freedom, individuality and individual respect.
Q: What lessons did you draw from the experience? We all, including the Chinese and Americans, share some common needs and wants. If we can open our hearts and ears to one another, it’s amazing the communications we enjoy. Coming from very conservative backgrounds, I think we felt that these people were so far different from us, that there was no way we could communicate, but we found just the opposite.
Q: How did traveling to China change your perspective? I think it made me more open to everyone. I’ve subsequently been fortunate to have been involved in a number of trips with the People to People International Foundation. The organization was developed by former President Dwight D. Eisenhower who believed that the real avenue to world peace was to get people together one-on-one. The experience in China helped prepare me for those types of exchanges. To be able to sit down with people from all backgrounds and experiences was very meaningful. I found that those people I met had a lot of the same wants and needs that I did.
Q: What is your advice to leaders? As with all communications, the paramount ingredient has to be to listen intently and hear the other person’s perspective. At the same time, you need to be sure they listen to your perspective too. If you first sincerely ask and listen for their perspectives, it opens them up and it opens you up as well. I found that people were much more comfortable with us if we first listened instead of immediately wanting to state our position.
Q: What is the most powerful lesson you learned from Ag Leadership? I feel that having been raised in agriculture and having had all of my career in agriculture, the tendency has been, and to a certain extent still is, that the urban community doesn’t understand us in agriculture. Through Ag Leadership I learned I wasn’t doing a tremendous job trying to understand people first. We can be much more effective by first listening and recognizing that others too have problems that we need to be considerate of.
Q: What was the most impactful lesson you had during the program? Public speaking. If anyone had told me when I left the ranch that I would ever be a public speaker, I would have said “there’s no way on Earth.” Ag Leadership gave me the confidence and practical experience I needed. I was able to go on and speak quite often to large groups. I owe all that to Ag Leadership.
UNDERSTANDING OTHERS = OPPORTUNITIES FOR PEACE
“WE ALL SHARE SOME COMMON NEEDS AND WANTS. IF WE CAN OPEN OUR HEARTS AND EARS TO ONE ANOTHER, IT’S AMAZING THE COMMUNICATIONS WE ENJOY.” -MIKE FITCH (3)
Tim Driscoll, Class 19
International Seminar: Indonesia, Pakistan, India and Singapore / 1990 Historical Connection: Meeting Mother Teresa
While traveling for Class 19’s international seminar, Tim Driscoll knew to expect an incredible journey, but what he left with was life changing. While in India, he credits his visit with Mother Teresa as being “the single most amazing experience.” Prior to meeting Mother Teresa, the fellows were warned that she was not a tourist attraction and that if there was even a chance of meeting her, they literally had work to do first. So they began with spending half a day caring for terminal patients in a hospital. As the individuals came in, fellows were told to change bedding, provide basic care as best they could and keep the patients company. The fellows also spent time at an orphanage where they interacted with and helped care for the very young children in the home.
Q: What did you learn about Mother Teresa during your international seminar? For the sake of her great humanity and caring, I have to say that she was more clear about what it is to love another human being than anyone I have ever met or known. Mother Teresa’s humanitarian work began when she and three fellow nuns found a man literally laying in the gutter in Calcutta. She knelt down in the street and began to care for him. When he asked why she was helping him, she said “because I love you.” And she meant it in the most profound of terms at a depth that you and I have never dreamt to understand what that meant.
It was incredible to see what she was causing to be done by her presence. It was a life’s work that she was orchestrating. I looked at her—I wouldn’t call her frail—but it was extraordinary to see the power that one woman has. When I had the opportunity to shake her hand, it was incredible. Her hand fit so perfectly into mine. It was an amazing sensation. And the smile on that woman was amazing. She was extraordinary, she was amazing. It was something I will never forget. Absolutely life changing. No questions in my mind, it had an earthquake effect on me then and it still affected me later on.
Q: What impact did the experience have on you? What came out of it was a program that I was inspired to create after meeting with Mother Teresa. Ag Against Hunger is a nonprofit organization based in Salinas that collects surplus produce from Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz county growers and served states throughout the West Coast.
The first year we hit 400,000 pounds of fresh produce and now we distribute approximately 12 million pounds of fresh produce each year. We secured donations and grants to make the program work. Agriculture has always been kind to its community. We’ve always taken care of the people in our community that needed it the most. It’s that kind of heart that lives long and sound in the culture of agriculture in this country and in every agriculturist.
Q: How did meeting Mother Teresa impact you? Mother Teresa touched my soul.
Q: How did meeting Mother Teresa change your perspective? She gave my perspective new direction. The experience gave my perspective more of an involvement with my heart and not just my mind. The ability to see what she was capable of was incredible. What you think you can’t do, yes you can and don’t ever forget it.
When I step back and look at the whole of meeting her and going to the hospital and the orphanage, as much as we describe the love, the caring, the passion, there’s also an element of reality that has to be included in our goals—the burden of the budget. Mother Teresa was able to manage the reality of what she was accomplishing. She had her hands in every single piece of it. If we forget those things, we fail.
Q: What is the most powerful lesson you learned from Ag Leadership? I think the realization of “I’m no longer who I was” and that my efforts to try and be something else and be something more was somewhat of a fool’s errand and the importance of simple things, honest things, loving things, is the most important thing for me. That came to me in all forms of things that moved me—sometimes to tears—throughout the program.
Q: What is something you learned from the program that you still carry with you today? It’s tough to sift it all out because there’s so much. When you’re in Ag Leadership, you come away from the program knowing you can call any of your fellow classmates and they will immediately respond. That really summarizes it so much. One of the things that I’m most proud of is the amazing people with whom I shared that experience.
Q: What is your advice to leaders in relation to helping others? Just do it. Don’t hesitate, don’t think about it. Just do it. We have great ideas, we think about them, we get distracted and then we don’t do it. So just do it. When you think about Mother Teresa and what she did, nothing is too big, nothing is too far, nothing is too hard that the best efforts won’t succeed.
THE SINGLE MOST AMAZING EXPERIENCE
Bill Adams, Class 32
National Seminar: Washington, D.C., Indiana, Missouri / 2002 Historical Connection: Traveling after Sept. 11
The first time Bill Adams and his fellow classmates traveled after Sept. 11 was for their national seminar in the spring of 2002—six months after four coordinated terrorist attacks hit the East Coast. Adams recalls that because the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) procedures were still in flux, everything took longer and every airport was following a different set of protocols. When they arrived in Washington, D.C., there was a visible level of heightened security. The fellows of Class 32 were one of the first groups to go into the Pentagon after the attacks. Seeing where the plane hit the building was an experience that Adams describes as deeply meaningful.
Q: How did traveling for the national seminar after Sept. 11 impact you? It made us all a lot more aware of our freedom. Being in Washington, D.C. after something like that, we had a lot of meaningful experiences through meetings with high-level politicians, including Nancy Pelosi. Learning and talking about Sept. 11 was a big part of everything we did during the national seminar. If it had just been a normal year, we wouldn’t have had a lot of those experiences.
The Supreme Court was one of the most interesting things we did—going into there was surreal. We met with Justice Scalia and he explained to us that the U.S. Constitution is not a living breathing document that changes—that was the biggest takeaway from that meeting. He was really strong in his convictions that we can’t just change the U.S. Constitution based on how people are thinking today.
Q: During the program what were the lessons you learned related to the events of Sept. 11? The biggest lesson was to not take your freedom for granted.
Q: What’s one takeaway from your time in Ag Leadership that you’d like to share? It’s a big commitment to leave your spouse and your family and your job. But one thing I realized was to not be selfish. When I got back I realized that although I had been traveling and had just had these incredible experiences, I needed to focus on the people that I was coming back to and focus on their needs. I learned to be sympathetic to the people who were taking care of everything for me while I was gone.
Q: What is something from the program that you still carry with you today? The ability to communicate and network not just with classmates, or other Ag Leadership folks who have been through the program. The ability to get up in front of people and communicate effectively was a big part of my experience. We had so many diverse experiences from traveling in general and seeing different perspectives. We did so many things I would’ve never experienced in my life. There were so many great experiences.
Q: What is your advice to leaders during times of crisis? Stay positive.
AWARENESS OF OUR FREEDOM
STAY POSITIVE
“THERE WAS A LOT OF UNCERTAINTY, BUT WE WERE ABLE TO GET THROUGH IT TOGETHER.” -BILL ADAMS (32)
Missy Gable, Class 40
International Seminar: Turkey and Israel / 2011 Historical Connection: The Arab Spring
Originally planning to visit Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia in March of 2011, the fellows of Class 40 had to be flexible when it became evident their plans would have to change. In December 2010, due to the Arab Spring, the Tunisia portion of the international seminar was canceled. Soon after in January 2011, the Egyptian Revolution began and there was uncertainty amongst the fellows as to whether or not they would be traveling at all. Those associated with the program were determined to provide Class 40 with a meaningful international seminar experience. Plans were adjusted and the fellows traveled to Turkey and Israel in March.
Q: How did Class 40’s international seminar affect you? I look back now and while I recall a lot of uncertainty, I also recall the positive attitudes of both the fellows and Ag Leadership personnel. I think Director of Education Dr. Michael Thomas provided exceptional leadership during this time. He modeled a positive attitude that we all adopted. He also openly communicated his excitement about the changes to our trip and his willingness to be flexible. Ultimately, I think everyone traveling left with a sense of adventure, an inquisitive mind and agreement that we’d find and create an amazing experience amidst the unexpected. I’m grateful for the leadership I experienced at the time. I credit modeling behavior and attitude to creating a fantastic educational seminar for Class 40. The experience was an invaluable lesson to me over the years and especially during 2020.
Q: How did traveling during the Arab Spring change your perspective? Class 40’s theme was “finding common ground” and that theme resonated throughout our international experience. The Arab Spring started with revolutionaries looking to affect widespread change, including free elections and democracy. Democracy is rule by the people; a system where the morals and values of leaders are in line with that of the population. I think you can look at democracy as a mode of ensuring common ground between elected officials and those who put them in power. It was incredible to see the power of common ground in practice during our international seminar.
Q: What is the most powerful lesson you learned from Ag Leadership? I was sitting at our orientation event, intimidated by the professionals surrounding me, and Dr. Charlie Crabb was sharing the importance of setting aside our work to lean into our Ag Leadership experience while we were attending our seminars. He shared with us that “you’ll get out of this exactly what you put into it.” I knew that saying and had certainly received the same advice in the past. I’m not sure I internalized just how important that guidance was until we were in our second or third seminar. It became abundantly clear that if I truly valued the experience I was getting, I would need to dedicate my time and all of my attention to the program. I watched my fellow classmates, true captains of industry, stop multi-tasking and really immerse themselves in our shared experience. We held one another to this expectation of full immersion and I credit that to the strength of our class and our connections with one another.
Q: What is something you learned from the program that you still carry with you today? A leader needs to be willing to stand up and take action, whether or not they feel completely prepared to do so. As a leader, I know I need to be ready and willing to make introductions, find connections, manage a room, make strategic decisions and more on any given day. Ag Leadership taught me to stand up to my own insecurities and self-doubt, to speak with confidence, shake hands like you mean it and see your leadership role as a way to care deeply about an organizational mission and the people behind it.
Q: What is your advice to leaders in times of turmoil? When leading during turmoil, open communication is key. Be available, be willing to listen, be ok with not having all the answers and communicating that. When we practice giving grace to others, they are more likely to give grace back to us.
ADOPTED A POSITIVE ATTITUDE
OPEN COMMUNICATION IS KEY
“I’M GRATEFUL FOR THE LEADERSHIP I EXPERIENCED AT THE TIME. THE EXPERIENCE WAS AN INVALUABLE LESSON TO ME OVER THE YEARS AND ESPECIALLY DURING 2020.” -MISSY GABLE (40)
