Inside this Issue · 2018-02-19 · development organization based on the Gandhian vision of Sarvodaya, or “universal uplift.” Shanti Ashram focuses its efforts on an integrated

The Leadership Advancement Program cohort in front of the Taj Majal. Read more

about their trip pg. 5

Inside this Issue:

2. The 2011

Emerging

Leadership

Program cohort

meets for a

Leadership Boot

Camp

3. Leadership

Advancement

Program graduate,

Roger Victory runs

for State House

4. Welcome to the

2012 Emerging

Leadership

Program

participants

5-9 The 2011-2012

Leadership

Advancement

cohort reflects on

their International

Experience in India

You are Invited

2011 – 2012 Leadership Advancement Program Graduation

AND

GLLA Endowment Campaign Kick-Off Event

Monday, June 11, 2012

6:00- 9:00 p.m.

Lexington Hotel, Lansing, MI

Russ Mawby will be the 2012 of the William Millikan Leader

for the Common Good Award

(A stewardship opportunity will be provided)

Please RSVP to Jackie by Thursday, June 1, 2012 @517353-6472 or email at [email protected]

Issue 5 May 2012

“Leadership Boot Camp” brings ELP Graduates Together

The 2011 Emerging Leader Program

class decided that they wished to maintain

contact with one another and work on

developing their leadership skills after the

program ended. The cohort agreed to meet

every six months via Skype, conference call

or in person. In March, about fourteen of

the members were able to come together in Mt. Pleasant for a day-long “Leadership Boot Camp” program. Two of

the cohort members, Bethany Prykucki and

Connie Conklin, took on the responsibility of

planning

and facilitating the program. Connie led a

session reviewing communication styles and

meeting management and Bethany led a

session on emotional maturity and

perfectionism in leadership. The group was

also fortunate to host John Robertson and

Daniel Leete who both led “deep thoughts”

sessions. In these sessions, cohort members

reflected on their

progress toward

accomplishing goals

that they set during

an earlier meeting.

The program allowed

for participants to

share their successes

and growing edges of

implementing

leadership skills.

Reflection and

communication allow

the participants to

remain actively

engaged with one

another and continue

to develop their leadership capacity. They

group has already made plans to connect

again in another six months.

The 2011 Emerging Leader Program cohort

Roger Victory runs for State House

Roger Victory, a Leadership Advancement

Program graduate, hopes to put the skills he gained

from his experience with the Great Lakes

Leadership Academy to work as he runs for State

House. During the 2010-2011 program, Roger

gained insight and perspective on many issues

impacting our state. He hopes to build more unity

between the east and west side of the state by

putting aside petty differences and focusing on the

challenges that face Michigan together.

Roger owns Victory Farms and has been an

influential member of the agricultural community in

the state. He believes that as one of Michigan’s

leading economic industries, there must be a

stronger presence representing agriculture within

the Michigan legislature. Among several positions

held, Roger is the former board chair of Farmers Co-

op Elevator Company, the former President and

Chair of the Ottawa County Farm Bureau and

Michigan’s board member on the National Council

of Agricultural Employees. If elected to the position

this August, Roger will continue to represent

Michigan’s agricultural community, gaining much

needed leverage for the industry.

This will be the first time that Roger has run

for political office and he is eager to promote the

principles important to his community at the state

level. His community involvement includes role of

elder and deacon at the First Hudsonville Christian

Reformed Church and a member of Ottawa’s Career

Line Tech Center Advisory Committee for

Agricultural Program. Roger believes that his area is

in need of a wider range of educational

opportunities, including a technical school. A school

that offers recent high school graduates with the

opportunity to learn a technical profession would

give young people more options when deciding

their career paths and generate more skilled

workers across manufacturing and business sectors.

As a state representative, Roger would

employ the constructive listening tactics he learned

as a Leadership Advancement Program participant.

Understanding other people’s points of view will be

essential in working out difficult issues cohesively

and cooperatively. Roger is a much-appreciated

asset to the communities he serves and his

devotion and passion to grow as a leader is

recognizable and inspiring. Learn more about

Roger’s campaign at www.rogervictory.com.

Welcome to the 2012 Emerging Leader Class

Randall Claramunt Fisheries Research Biologist MDNR Kathryn Colasanti Academic Specialist C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems, MSU Jessica Colpean Food Industry Scientist MDARD Christie Deloria Fish & Wildlife Biologist U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Braden Harrington Resource Analyst MDA, Environmental Stewardship Division Richard Hill Parks & Recreation District Supervisor, Straits District, MDNR Erika Jensen Senior Program Specialist Great Lakes Commission Katherine Julian Graduate Student Assistant Dept of Fisheries and Wildlife, MSU Laura Kausch Inspector MDARD Nickole Keith Youth Worker N.H.B.P. Inc. Daniel Kennedy Wildlife Biologist MDNRE, Wildlife Division

Hanna Kruckman Graduate Student, MSU Lynda Krupansky Senior Coastal Management Analyst, MDEQ Jo Latimore Academic Specialist Dept. of Fisheries and Wildlife, MSU Todd Losee Wetlands Specialist MDEQ Colleen Matts Farm to Institution Outreach Specialist CS Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems, MSU Steven Milford District Manager MDNR Erin Mittendorf Communications Coordinator The Stewardship Network Chansy Paulik Environmental Quality Analyst, MDEQ Nicholas Popoff Manager Fisheries Division, MDNR Matthew Preisser Lake Coordinator Office of the Great Lakes, MDEQ Peter Wyckoff Regional Engineer Ducks Unlimited, Inc.

Robin Clark with farm family

The streets in India really are quite complete – pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, ox-carts, camels,

autos, rickshaws, cows, and heavy trucks all

enthusiastically share the roads.

Reflections on the 2012 LAP International Experience Leadership Advancement Program participants share their experience in India

In February 2012, the Great Lakes Leadership Academy — Leadership Advancement Program (GLLA-LAP) Cohort III traveled 8,000 miles to spend two weeks of 95-degree weather in India to develop a global perspective on leadership for the common good. The twenty-seven participants also included GLLA Director Vicki Pontz, coaches Jerry Jennings and Brenda Allston- Mills, GLLA Board member Ellen Kohler, and Michigan State University Study Abroad Programs Director Dan Dutkiewicz, who served as our guide.

We experienced India through interactions with residents, professors, students, and community leaders involved in agriculture, environment, natural resources, economic development, education and health care. Participants traveled to both urban and rural locations to engage in cultural, academic and civic activities, and learned how local practitioners in agricultural development to early childhood education work together across sectoral, religious and socio-economic differences. The GLLA-LAP III cohort arrived in Delhi, India, on Saturday, February 18, and over the following twelve days marveled at the Taj Mahal, Madras Crocodile

Ritchie Harris planting a sapling

Jeff Kala connects with preschool children

Bank Trust, and Tree Fossil Park, ate our fill of spicy curries, participated in morning interfaith prayers at the Gandhi-based Shanti Ashram, visited a local elementary school’s vaccination program funded by MSU study abroad students, and joined hundreds of locals to watch a devotional dance during the Natyanjali festival at the famous Chidambaram Nataraja Temple.

From our landing point in Delhi in north India, we took a domestic flight

to the southeastern state of Tamil Nadu. After cultural and natural resource visits in Chennai, we planted saplings donated by a local community leader to replace mangroves destroyed by the 2004 tsunami, and then joined nearly 100 middle school students in Chidambaram to witness their pledge to conserve water through the Youth Water Conservation Project developed in partnership with Anamalai University (AU). We also heard student presentations from AU’s department of agricultural economics, and were particularly moved by a presentation on female infanticide. That same day, we were treated to a special audience with AU Vice-Chancellor (comparable to our University President), and then visited a local entrepreneur who had integrated poultry, fish and rice farming, and was also helping women make money

weaving traditional mats and baskets. From there, we took an overnight train to Coimbatore, where we visited wholesale banana and flower markets, and traveled two hours by bus to visit a tribal Women’s Rosemary Growers’ Association employing high tech farming. We also had the

Face to face with women’s enterprise

Luke Meerman share pictures of his farms with pre-schoolers and their parents.

opportunity to meet and hear the stories of young local business leaders in the Young Indians society, many of whom had chosen to come back to contribute to their community. Our longest and most intensive visit was with Shanti Ashram, a rural development organization based on the Gandhian vision of

Sarvodaya, or “universal uplift.” Shanti Ashram

focuses its efforts on an integrated approach to early education, community health, environmental restoration, local governance training, and poverty alleviation. Throughout their work, Shanti Ashram is guided by a commitment to peace education and interfaith collaboration. We visited Bala Shanti pre-schools. These schools, constructed using donated funds, expand their lessons beyond general education to include instruction on interfaith awareness, proper nutrition, and personal hygiene – lessons the children would bring home to their families. After visiting various programs and engaging in some intense deliberation, the group ended up voting to give our donation to Shanti Ashram’s new Gandhi Peace Institute project, one of their 25-year Silver Jubilee Anniversary objectives for 2011-12. The Peace Institute will build Shanti

Women’s enterprise groups weave natural fibers

HIV infected children receive gifts from LAP participants

Ashram’s capacity to host visiting learning groups like ours and develop an international fellows program; the group felt that out of all the programs, this was the one that most resonated with the spirit of GLLA. Our $5000 donation will help seed planning for the Institute, and we are excited to contribute to international leadership development for the common good in South Asia.

Our final destination was Cochin in neighboring Kerala, a state with 94% literacy (the rest of India is 75%). There, Lisa Brush, Jeff Kala, Ritchie Harrison, and Luke Meerman spoke to an auditorium of MBA students about business principles from their perspectives. Our hosts took us to a manufacturing center where women hand-processed and wove baskets and purses out of natural fibers, and led us on a boat tour of Kerala’s backwaters. A highlight of the tour was seeing the 3,000-year-old

Muziris port in the Bay of Bengal, where Kerala had established itself as the epicenter of the global spice trade and busiest port in the history of the world.

On our final morning in India, the group spent time on the beach reflecting on the previous 12 days. Members shared that they were inspired to reconnect with their spirituality, become more gracious hosts to foreign visitors, appreciate the preciousness of water and electricity in different parts of the world, invest more in our children everywhere, and continue to develop more global perspectives.

The memories created, the knowledge gained, and the relationships that developed between new friends will have a significant impact on members of the Great Lakes Leadership Academy as they grow into true leaders who are focused on the common good for Michigan, the United States, and the world.

Sandra Yu, Chris Sadler, Andrea Boughton

Celebrating Thinking Together

Tomorrow belongs to those that can collaborate and create in concert Tomorrow’s promise is complex and thus requires interdependent thinkers Those who listen and think together will realize tomorrow’s opportunities

Today’s people of the world have an opportunity to get good at thinking together

We can connect with each other to develop our collective dispositions, points of view and dreams

We can “grow” thinking by thinking together across differences By thinking interdependently, we invest in the idea that good will come from the diversity of

thought We demonstrate that there is real human value in connecting: mind-to-mind

Mind-to-mind: not politely tolerating each other’s opportunity to talk

Mind-to-mind: not striving to be the winner - as if one’s thinking is the best Mind-to-mind: not just sharing space with the appearance of broadmindedness and

acceptance Mind-to-mind: not argument-to-argument

Connecting mind-to-mind requires people of openness

Being willing to grow in our thinking will lead to new beginnings for the common good Connecting mind-to-mind will increase learning together

Connecting mind-to-mind creates new relationships – new beginnings

Gerald A. Jennings February 2012

Time and time again, we were greeted with a tilak – a mark of blessing on the forehead