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Nikola: Recruitment can be a struggle for state’s ag leadership program

By KEVIN GEORGE
Editor

NEWARK, Del. — The New Jersey Agricultural Leadership Developmental Program is about to complete its sixth class of graduates.
The current group, fresh off a seven-day trip to Italy, has just one final three-day session to complete in early May before it is expected to graduate in mid-June.
The NJALDP was in Newark, Del., in April to share a session with like-themed groups from Delaware and Maryland.
“It gives us the opportunity to meet with colleagues from different states and the agricultural disciplines that we don’t have,” said Mary Nikola, NJALDP director. “It may be a different discipline, but maybe they share similar problems like water issues and land-use issues.”
Nikola became director a few years after the program’s inception.
Though she is encouraged with the progress the organization has made in her tenure, she confessed it can be difficult to attract applicants to the program every two years.
“Recruiting is a struggle,” Nikola said. “There are some misunderstandings out there like ‘Oh, I see you went to Washington D.C. in May, and I could never do anything in May.’ The schedule isn’t set until after the class is picked. We’ll pick a schedule that works for the 25 people” in the class.
“But we haven’t even started recruiting yet,” said said. “We’ve been so busy with this (Newark) seminar and the international trip. Now is when I’ll put the pedal to the metal and start to make the visits and call people. Each of the members of the class are also busyrecruiting. We’ll be getting there.”
She added there are already 10 applicants for the seventh class that have been submitted.
“New Jersey is interesting; we’re so small and we have so few farms,” Nikola said. “Pretty much, people are just tapped out with all the commitments already. I wouldn’t say we’re like California with the waiting list.”
Nikola added California — a pioneer state in creating a training process for agricultural community leaders — has two classes going through the process at one time. She said California’s students also has the luxury of attending tuition-free, with the tab being picked up by endowments.
“Word-of-mouth is really the No. 1 technique,” she said of New Jersey’s success. “I think people hear about it from their colleagues. These individuals are now charged with getting on their various county boards and their planning boards ... and talk about and look at who would be the next crop coming.”
Nikola said there is an art to comprising classes. She looks for a diversity of demographics and a variety of growers so there’s a greater opportunity for students to learn about something they may not be familiar.
“What we look for is a mix,” she said. “We make sure we have a mix of men and women, we want to make sure we’re representing various counties throughout the state and various disciplines.”
Nikola used the current class as a successful illustration.
“You can sit down and create a matrix (that connects) their discipline, their age, their gender and their experience — what else do they bring to the table?” she said. “I have a woman in this class that was a crew chief on a Blackhawk (helicopter) in Bosnia, and I have a woman in this class that fled that country during its civil war. You have a woman who left that country — she’s a scientist and she came here with nothing — and 10 years later, one of my students was over there in that crisis. Look at that. ... Can you imaging the dialog and the sharing between them?”
“That depth is just incredible.”

LEAD Delaware soaks in veteran influence from New Jersey, Maryland

By KEVIN GEORGE
Editor

NEWARK, Del. — The fledgling LEAD Delaware organization made a quick stride to accelerate its learning curve last week.
It hosted two more established programs from neighboring states for a three-day seminar.
Ed Kee, the director of the first-year, 12-person Delaware group, offered invitations to LEAD Maryland and the New Jersey Agricultural Leadership Development Program. More than 70 individuals compile the current three programs.
“I’m happy with a lot of things,” Kee said, as the final day was wrapping up.
“It’s only (Delaware’s) second meeting and our group is engaged and they’re interacting with the other folks. The feedback of the tour and the session in general has been very good.”
The three state organizations, like at least 30 others around the country, are geared toward molding community leaders well versed in agricultural issues, matters and understanding.
“We really thought that having all three programs put together would create a seminar that would be stronger than what any one of us could have done alone,” LEAD Maryland executive director Susan Harrison said. “The synergy was to bring together the resources each one of us had. … The design of our programs is that our people learn from each other.
“It’s a good opportunity because sometimes we learn about the perspectives in our own states,” Harrison added. “But to see a bigger picture (from other states) has been really good.”
Delaware is just two sessions into its inaugural class, and Maryland is two meetings into its fifth class. New Jersey is nearing completion of its sixth class, which will graduate soon and recently returned from its international trip to Italy.
All three states have programs designed to last two years. Maryland and New Jersey’s classes are each comprised of about 25 members.
Harrison made note of the chain of influence between the three states.
“In many ways, Maryland’s program was modeled after New Jersey because they established one several years before Maryland did,” she said.
“But then, likewise, Maryland did a good job to inspire Delaware to have their own program. I think there’s a bit of a sense of family and commitment there to keep supporting each other.”
New Jersey, simply because of the class’s experiences, was treated as almost an older sibling of the other two.
“We knew that both (of the other) states had just started — and Delaware is brand new,” said NJALDP director Mary Nikola. The New Jersey members are “very outspoken, and that’s part of the process is to be willing to share what you think and present it in a way that’s constructive and positive.”
“I’m happy with the interaction of all the states,” Kee said. “The whole meeting, they’ve been talking to each other and they’re interested in each other. They’ve treated it as an opportunity to network.”
The agenda covered biotechnology, research, food security, biofuels and organic and local foods.
The session featured a day-long, four-stop bus tour that wandered from Newark to the Delaware Agricultural Museum in Dover.
“The theme of the meeting was biotechnology and science, and Newark was a natural fit,” Kee said.
Newark, placed in the far-north portion of the state, provided an ideal location for the meetings.
Geographically, it was ideal for the New Jersey and Maryland travelers, and it is the home of the DuPont Stine-Haskell Research Station, a major player in developmental research related to countless projects geared to agricultural interests.
“I was mildly apprehensive that our new people (from Delaware) would be shy or bashful,” Kee said. “But they interacted and jumped right in.”