Last year about this time, I read a great book by Howard Buffett, son of the famous Warren Buffett. The book was entitled 40 Chances for Finding Hope in a Hungry World. The gist of the book was in our working lives, we have about 40 chances (40 years) to make a lasting impact. I highly recommend the book and will go as far as saying that if you read it with an open heart, it will change the way you approach your everyday work.
This fall, I have had the opportunity to travel with several groups of students to events such as the Rural Futures Conference, a career day in agriculture sponsored by First Bank & Trust, and the UNMC career opportunities day. After each one of these days and the follow up conversations with students, it has reinforced how small our window of opportunity is make a lasting and meaningful impact in the lives of our students. The obvious conclusion, is that with the high school students we have today, we don't have forty chances, we only have four. Those four chances pass with the blink of an eye and as educators and leaders we should experience a sense of extreme urgency to 'get it right' with our students.
The reality of life in small town rural America, is that sometimes, we are our worst enemies when it comes to the long term viability of our communities. We do a great job of teaching our students. We do a great job of instilling the ethic of work. We do a great job of laying the foundation for future success in a global society. Where we fall short, is building lasting relationships between our students and our community stakeholders. We fail to build opportunites for our students to return to our communities to carry the torch of rural America and the economic viability of our communities.
Recently, our school has made the decision to revitalize an agriculture education program. For those of you who have a sterotypical view of agriculture jobs flashing through your minds, keep in mind that depending upon the source or region of Nebraska, anywhere from one out of four (25%) to three out of four (75%) jobs in our state are directly related to agriculture. These jobs go far beyond production into the finance, logistics, and manufacturing industries as well. Through our agriculture education program, we hope to provide greater educational opportunities for our students where they can find meaningful and productive work after formal education ends. We also hope to help our all of our students (high ability and vocationally bound) the opportunity to gain knowledge and skills that are relevant to all of us.
During this process, we have gathered together a committee of local stakeholders to help us formulate the vision for our program, build partnerships, and recruit the highest quality instructor possible. This week, we held our first stakeholder meeting to gather their invaluable input on the direction our program should take, as well as, ideas to bring greater value to our agriculture education program. This is one of the greatest benefits of living in small town rural America. The opportunity to personally know and work with these core members of our community to provide a better educational system. The opportunity to work with our community members can't have a price tag placed on it.
I am born and raised in Cozad and ten years ago, made the choice to come back home. Perhaps that was by happenstace, perhaps there was some primary experience which called me back home. Either way, what matters most is that I returned. Every day, I try not to take for granted all the hidden opportunities that exist in the challenges of living in small town America. It is not often that people have the chance to impact an entire community and region in their work, but that is an everyday reality of living in a rural community. My experiences have been so positive that I hope that all of our students one day have the chance to come back home too!
With our high school students, one year represents 25% of the 'chances' we have to prepare them for the real world. It represents 25% of the chances we have to help them discover their passion. It represents 25% of our chances to help them discover opportunities and connect with our community so that they can help sustain the work done by those living in our community today. Four chances go by quickly. I challenge all who read this to comment with a memory of someone who helped you identify your passion and inspired you to 'find hope in a hungry world'. I also challenge all eductors reading this to never take a day for granted. Our chances are limited, so make the most of every one of them.
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