I have long believed that a university should be an asset to the community it is in. That belief has shaped my career, and it is a large part of what brought me to VALOR. I’m Omar Faison, Vice Provost for Research and Economic Development at Virginia State University and a member of VALOR Class… Continue reading Introduction and Tidewater/Eastern Shore Reflections
By VALOR Class VIII Fellow: Mark Sutphin, Extension Agent, Virginia Cooperative Extension - Frederick County What connects a jar of peanut butter, a cotton shirt, a package of bacon, and a bag of potato chips? During Session Two of the Virginia Agriculture Leaders Obtaining Results (VALOR) Class VIII program, we discovered the answer is far… Continue reading Peanuts, Pork, Potatoes, a Port…and Cotton: Understanding Virginia Agriculture Through VALOR VIII
I write this post with a bittersweet feeling, as our recent trip to Central Virginia marked our final session before graduation in July. Beginning around Session 5, I started choosing a single word to guide my reflections—and for this experience, that word is diversity. Merriam-Webster defines diversity as “the quality or condition of having or… Continue reading Diversity
I grew up on a draft horse and mule farm in Baltimore County Maryland. I spent my summers tracking the weather for the perfect 3 days of sunshine and stacking hay in our old bank barn. I slept in stalls to watch foals be born. I carried hay in two feet of snow and busted… Continue reading Finding my place
Virginia Farm Bureau's Vice President and it's governmental relation's department Senior Vice President are both from Southside VA. If you have met them, it is no surprise that Southside is all in when it comes to supporting agriculture. Robert Mills and Martha Moore give 100% to everything they do and are strong voices in Agriculture.… Continue reading Southside is ALL IN
I felt it was appropriate to combine my take aways from Seminar VII and IX, not only because I am behind on these blog posts, but because I was constantly comparing the two in my head. Seminar VII took us through upstate New York into Canada. My first trip to Canada and we got an… Continue reading “Democracy ends at the door, majority rules here”
It’s spring in the Shenandoah Valley and farmers are hard at work preparing for their 2026 planting season. There I was sitting at my four-year-old’s first soccer game in rural Mount Jackson, Virginia. I took a deep breath and inhaled the unquestionable smell of poultry litter scattered at nearby farms and was immediately transported to… Continue reading Chicken Litter
Transformative is defined by Merriam-Webster as “causing or able to cause an important and lasting change in someone or something.” In past blog posts, I’ve often captured my travel experiences with a single, descriptive word—one word to summarize a person, a place, or a moment. This time, that single word is the influence on me… Continue reading Transformation
Time moves at a different pace in Morocco. What started as a joke-converting stats and currency while jumping between languages-we laughed that our guide often misjudged travel time to our stops. “Morocco time” quickly became one of the most defining observations of the trip. At first, it felt situational-maybe tied to our schedule-but over time… Continue reading Two weeks in Morocco: Reflections and Takeaways
Seedling oysters from an aquaculture setting, seen at Rappahannock Oyster Co. Before I started my current position, and really until this seminar, I was unfamiliar with the Northern Neck. Its name described a vague area and geographical outline, and I was unaware of the qualities that deemed it the Northern Neck region. On this seminar,… Continue reading Spat on a Shell and Life on the Bay
