Man graduates from state ag leadership program
KARL took group
to Mexico, Costa Rica
By JENNIFER WILSON
News editor
Ask Hillsboro resident Kevin Suderman to tell you about KARL, and you're in for a long tale.
"Do you have two or three days?" he asks, laughing.
So what's this KARL that Suderman speaks so highly of? It's an acronym standing for the Kansas Agriculture and Rural Leadership program.
And it's an intensive two-year program that Suderman completed this year — a program that brought him from the farms of Western Kansas to the sugarcane fields of Costa Rica.
The experience gave Suderman a new perspective of the world outside his hometown.
"I ive in Marion County, and what I know is Marion, McPherson, and Dickinson counties," he said.
According to the KARL brochure, the program is "a two-year program offering intensive study, training, and travel for future leaders in agriculture communities." It's a nonprofit organization solely funded by contributions.
Suderman first learned about KARL when he was living in Sublette. A man from Ulysses encouraged him to look into the program.
Suderman started filling out the application — which is no easy undertaking with 10 to 15 pages per application and each answer requiring paragraph-sized responses, he said.
After KARL officials reviewed his application, Suderman then went in for a face-to-face interview at Dodge City. It was the spring of 2001, and Suderman found out a short time later that he'd been chosen. By June he found out he was a part of class six, which would begin that fall.
The program wasn't free; each participant had to pay or raise $2,500 for the two years. Suderman was able to raise part of his payment through donations from local farmers.
"I appreciated that," he said.
But the actual cost per person is about $11,000, so most of each person's fees come from donations to the nonprofit agency, Suderman said.
For the next two years, from the fall of 2001 to the spring of 2003, Suderman and his class of 30 participated in 12 different sessions covering a variety of topics. By that time he had moved back to his hometown of Hillsboro.
Sessions were fairly time-consuming, Suderman said, normally running from Wednesday afternoon through Friday morning.
Some of the sessions included:
— Personal development — leadership styles and the roles of committees and boards.
— Dealing with the media — practicing speaking with reporters, speaking on camera, and handling hostile interviews.
— Communication — debates, public speaking, and new technologies.
— State legislature — meeting with Kansas agriculture secretary, learning about rural issues and the regulation of agriculture.
— Leavenworth — touring the prison facility, learning about the war college at Fort Leavenworth.
— Rural economic development — agriculture, education, and health systems in rural areas.
Although most of the sessions took place within the state, two bigger trips brought the group to Washington, D.C., Mexico, and Costa Rica.
While on a trip to Washington in the spring of 2002, KARL participants got the chance to meet with senators and representatives from Kansas, as well as individuals from similar ag leadership groups from other states.
They were very impressed with the caliber of the Kansas program, Suderman said.
"It blew their minds," he said.
Also in Washington, some group members visited the headquarters of such powerful lobbying groups as PETA and Farm Animal Reform Group.
But the biggest trip of all came this spring, in March of 2003, when the group spent 11 days traveling in Mexico and Costa Rica.
For the first part of the trip, members flew to Mexico City, where they met with several United States trade organizations and officials at the American embassy.
They then spent time at another area south of the city — where they toured a New Holland tractor plant and saw a box set for shipment to Wichita.
"It's always a small world," Suderman said.
After visiting a local feed mill and corn producers, the group flew to Costa Rica, where they met with representatives from Earth University, an environmentalist group. For the duration of the trip they visited schools, went to pineapple and sugarcane farms, and stopped at a plush cattle market.
Although he didn't always agree with others' opinions, the trips helped him to see the value of other perspectives, Suderman said.
"It taught me that I have a terribly small view of the state," he said. "Community leaders need to have a larger view of the world."
He learned how privileged Americans are compared to the technology of some other countries.
"We complain a lot about things here in the United States," Suderman said. But compared to other countries, what Americans have is "mind-boggling."
Suderman said he'd encourage anybody interested in KARL to apply for the program. More information is available at the Web site www.oznet.ksu.edu/karl.
