As much as I love the farm and doing my job. I also love getting out of my normal routine to visit with industry members and other young people. I volunteer for the Michigan Dairy Ambassador Program as one of the coordinators. My favorite part of the program is getting to shape the future leaders of the Michigan Dairy Industry.
The neatest thing about the program is that the students get promote, educate and gain leadership experiences over their year. We don’t simply hand them a scholarship and that’s the end. We let each student come in with a project idea and we help them turn it into a reality.
For example, Melissa Erdman (the 2010 senior dairy ambassador), wanted to promote the dairy industry to a different age group. Traditionally, we push dairy education to adults and children but Melissa saw an opportunity to promote it to seniors. She went into a nursing home and talked to the residents about how to integrate dairy back into their diets slowly and how it could be beneficial to their health.
A few weeks ago I brought my good friend Janice Person (a.k.a. JP Loves Cotton) up to Michigan to help me out with some. She helped to pick the 2011 Michigan Dairy Ambassadors at the Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference. Thankfully, I got to help keep the candidates moving along through the day. I got to listen to the group discussion and get to know all of them over the course of the day.
It never ceases to amaze me. We have some wonderful future leaders in the state of Michigan. I cannot wait to see what they’re all going to do in the future. We have some big shoes to fill but I am not concerned about it.
Check out Janice on her Twitter page here. Don’t forget to find more information about the Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference here.
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