Agriculture—the Future of America

Later this week, Kansas City will open its doors to young agriculturists from across the Midwest for the networking experience of a lifetime! I am so excited for the AFA Leadership Conference (Agriculture Future of America) which is going to have a whole different dimension for me this year. As an ambassador for the University of Missouri, I get to go in a day early and help with the whole setup and organization before the start of the conference.

This past summer, I applied to be a campus ambassador for MU because I really enjoyed my experiences at AFA last summer. Whether it was an etiquette dinner of six courses, learning good planning skills with the Franklin Covey system, or attending the career fair featuring hundreds of companies, AFA was awesome! I hadn’t run for the AFA Advisory Team because I had only been in Track 1 of the conference—and there were two other tracks I wanted to go through before I would feel prepared for that leadership position.

Being a campus ambassador was a happy medium. After applying and being accepted, my duties were to promote the AFA conference to all CAFNR students. I haven’t had the chance to promote the conference to the extent I originally wanted, but that has not put a damper on my enthusiasm for AFA. I will be traveling to Kansas City a day before AFA this week to help with the necessary preparations. I’m so excited!

I truly believe the future of America today is based in agriculture. Finding this love for me has been a difficult road… but at least I have found the road I’m meant to travel on. This week I get to share that with other young college students—and I can’t wait!

-Charlotte Jackson
Sophomore, Agricultural Education

For information about leadership and professional opportunities like AFA, visit CAFNR Career Services in Ag Building 2-64 today!