Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts

The minute we touched down safely onto our home soil on the runway in San Francisco, an ease came about the group, not just because we were about to go home and see our loved ones, but also the fact that we can walk away with more confidence as leaders because of the amazing experience we all shared together these past 15 days.  Class 42 was able to hold each other up in challenging times, and enable the strengths of one another to allow the group to thrive. In our final synthesis, the observations and comments were felt strongly by all and allowed our thoughts to all come together after several days of intense critical thinking and reflection. Although some of us were physically ill, mentally exhausted or everything in between, we managed to pull out the leadership lessons we had been observing along the way.

Our deepest thanks go out to Dr. Thomas and Karmdeep Baines, who spent endless hours orchestrating and pulling strings to get this trip prepared, and truly put together several once in a lifetime opportunities throughout our trip to India and Nepal.  Your leadership showed and it was an honor to stand beside you and represent the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation under your guidance.  A warm thank you also is deserving of Dr. Robert Flores and Dean Charles Boyer who added great insight and support throughout the entire trip as well.  We also would like to thank Mr. Bob Gray who was able to spend time with us on the front end of the trip.  Your wealth of knowledge has added so much to our leadership journey not only on this trip, but along our Ag Leadership experience these past two years as well. We are grateful for our loving families and employers who had the foresight and patience to see the value not only in this trip, but our Ag Leadership experience so far.  We also would like to thank our California Agricultural Leadership Foundation donors who made this trip possible with the funding and the vision to see this organization thrive.

We all walked away with different lessons but all were valuable in developing ourselves into better leaders. Looking ahead, utilizing the skills and confidence earned from this trip we are able to take it back into the communities we thrive in and make a difference.