Theodore Geisel, more commonly known as beloved children's author Dr. Seuss once said:“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory” I’m finding a lot of truth in that statement as my VALOR experience comes to a close. Tomorrow I head to Roanoke to be with my classmates one… Continue reading Final Seminar, Final Blog
Although I am not from Virginia, it’s always incredible to me when I can find a sense of home during our travels with VALOR. Our most recent seminar brought the class to the Shenandoah Valley, which actually reminds me A LOT of where I grew up in Central California. The Shenandoah Valley in VA and… Continue reading Adapting and Innovating in The Valley
Jambo jambo! I find myself using this joyful greeting to friends and colleagues even though we have been back in the U.S. for a few weeks after our whirlwind adventure in Kenya. To say that I was deeply touched and changed by my time in East Africa would be an understatement. I have always believed… Continue reading Asante sana, Kenya!
Our recent trip to Southside VA might have been our shortest VALOR seminar to date, but it helped to reinforce for me a lesson I was taught many years ago. A former colleague of mine always used to remind us that: “When your values are clear, your choices are easy.” This statement constantly plays on… Continue reading Clear Values, Easy Choices
September marked our class’s one year anniversary, and brought our group to the Northern Neck, Middle Peninsula, and Chesapeake Bay. One of the catchiest tunes that I can recall from my childhood is a song by Raffi called Down By The Bay. Unlike the character in the song we didn’t see any goats rowing boats,… Continue reading Down By The Bay
“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” - Coretta Scott King As someone who has moved across the country a number of times, I am always extremely grateful when I am able to find myself amongst a strong community. As I reflect on our recent time… Continue reading Greatness of Community
Towards the end of May, our VALOR class loaded ourselves and our things into a 12-passenger van and began the trek to the Bluegrass State of Kentucky for our domestic agriculture experience. Thanks to my time in the FFA, I am very familiar with Louisville, KY, but admittedly had not spent any other time in… Continue reading A Horse Walks Into A Leadership Program…
“We try to be a department that looks at problems in new, weird, and different ways.” Jaime Pinkham, Principal Deputy Assistant at the U.S. Army for Civil Works (and Washington Ag Leadership Program Alum) shared this quote with our VALOR class, and gave tangible examples how his organization lives out this mantra daily. As I’ve… Continue reading New – Weird – Different
“Agriculture and forestry are Virginia’s first and third largest industries.” In our first meeting of the Richmond seminar, Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Matt Lohr shared this statistic with our VALOR class. While it was mentioned directly a few times during our days in and around the state capital (even by Governor Youngkin during his… Continue reading Number One and Number Three
When was the last time that you experienced something for the first time? Every time I’m put into unfamiliar situations or when I find myself facing a new or unexpected experience, I ask myself this question. I think we can all agree, as we get older, the number of times we encounter something for the… Continue reading A First Time for Everything
valeadersor.com 