The mission of the WTAMU College of Agriculture, Science and Engineering is to provide excellence in teaching, research and professional service. The college offers students a wide variety of extracurricular activities such as leadership opportunities.
In AGRI 3306, The Principles of Agricultural Leadership, students are getting real world experiences through application of leadership principles with emphasis on interpersonal and personal skills, dynamics of organizational structure as well as institutional and agency leadership.
As a part of this class, Dr. Lance Keith brings in various leaders from surrounding communities to come talk to the students about leadership and what it takes to be a leader.
“It provides students with the experience of hosting an esteemed individual,” Summer Townsend, sophomore Agricultural Media and Communications major, said. “The presenter shows students what it means to be a leader. We as students are all learning from these leaders.”
Dr. Crystal Warnock, an Agricultural Leadership Educator, does leadership training development to help organizations increase employee engagement. One of Warnock’s biggest points is about motivation.
“You can kill it faster than you can create it,” Warnock said. “I should never ask someone to do something I’m not willing to do.”
A part of her leadership training, Warnock emphasizes that in challenging others to grow, she has to continue to be challenged to grow herself.
“If you are green, you are growing,” Warnock said. “If you are ripe, you will rot.”
Not only is Warnock an educator on leadership, she is also a Missouri beef producer and an Etiquette consultant.
“A role model is someone to look up to either personally or professionally and I think having a role model is a key part of learning to be a better leader,” Jayce Jane Renee Apsley, senior Agricultural Media and Communications major, said. “Dr. Warnock is an excellent role model for anyone in pursuit of being a better leader.”
To show their appreciation the students prepare a meal or desert for the community leader.
“We want the presenters to feel welcomed and for them to know that we did not take their presence lightly, but that they were appreciated for coming to talk to us about leadership,” Townsend said.
