2012 Update by Ellie Hollabaugh Vranich:
The U.S. Apple Association hosted its Annual Capitol Hill Day in cooperation with its spring board meeting in March this year. For the second year, two young representatives from each apple growing state were invited to participate in the week's events in Washington D.C. I was fortunate enough to have been one of the young leaders from Pennsylvania this year.
The entire experience was wonderful! Well, maybe everything except having to drive in rush hour traffic in Washington, D.C. (God bless the folks who do that every day, and thank God for rural Adams County, PA!) The young leaders were treated to a dinner on their first night in D.C. with Nancy Foster and Diane Kurrle, U.S. Apple staff, and a number of the current board members. It was an opportunity to get to know the faces behind U.S. Apple, talk about current apple issues, and learn about the U.S. Apple Association itself.
Thursday was a day packed with Capitol Hill visits to our state's congressional leaders. Armed will a full slate of apple issues, Pennsylvania was well-represented with a group of eight growers. Some or all of us met with Representatives Bill Shuster, Jason Altmire, Todd Platts, Tim Holden, and Jim Gerlach, and Senators Patrick Toomey and Robert Casey. Agricultural Labor, Stinkbug and SCRI research, the Farm Bill, and apples from China were some of the major topics we covered.
It became abundantly clear to me just how very important the U.S. Apple Association is to our industry, as meeting after meeting, the Congressmen were already well educated on our biggest apple issues, and largely supportive of working to make sure funding and support remain in place, despite the unrest our country is currently facing with budgetary demands.
On Friday, the young leaders were invited to attend U.S. Apple's Committee meetings, where we learned about the many other areas in which the Association supports our industry. They're getting involved with social media (have you seen their new blog or facebook page - check them out!), have a brand new website, and have been featured in dozens of media publications last fall alone - all to keep apples at the top of everyone's grocery lists. And that's only the work of the Education Committee, not to mention the other committees that are equally busy!
The experience was incredibly educational and altogether worthwhile. I'd like to thank Nancy Foster and the rest of the staff at U.S. Apple and the Board of Directors for welcoming me into your world for a few days, and Ken Guise and Knouse Foods for sponsoring the experience! I hope other young leaders will have the opportunity in future years to participate!
PA RULE is another Penn State-sponsored leadership program. RULE encourages and fosters the development of community leaders from all segments of Pennsylvania by using a program of study to:
Provide an opportunity for interested citizens to explore community problems and issues from a broad socioeconomic perspective and learn how they can participate more effectively in public decision-making.
Increase participant understanding of social organizations in communities; processes by which groups make decisions; strategies by which decisions are implemented; inter-organizational networks; government’s role in helping to solve public problems; and the economic, political, cultural, and social forces of direct importance to public policy decision-making.
Eisenhower Fellows receive a custom-tailored, all-expense-paid trip for up to five weeks to one or two countries. During the trip, fellows explore different agricultural issues in other parts of the world.
Previous participants of this unique program have risen to positions of influence, and have used the international connections to bring new ideas and technologies to their communities.
The applicant must be an active farmer aged 32-45 with excellent networking avenues, demonstrated leadership experience, U.S. citizenship, and a commitment to at least 15-20 years of further active leadership in agriculture.
2012 Eisenhower Ag Fellowship Announcement (applications due June 15, 2011)
For more information about these leadership opportunities, please contact Katie Ellis.