Marc A. Craig

If I had been asked this question last week, my answer would have been “Nothing. . . I’m going into the IT (Information Technology) field. How many computers do you see lying around corn fields here in Iowa?” After all my experiences this week my view has totally changed, I now realize that almost every different major offered at any of the local colleges or universities can be applied to the vast Agriculture field. It was amazing to find out that around 21% of Iowa’s economy is linked in some way back to the Agriculture industry either directly or indirectly.

During the week we have seen many different and great opportunities in our state of Iowa. After thinking about it the main thing that I can see missing is a proper education system. What I mean by this is, during high school I got bored a lot because the work was too easy and the teachers didn’t seem to care much about their jobs let alone the students in their classes. My high school years did not prepare me for the next level in the game of life, which is college. I took a few AP classes in high school only to find out that the school wasn’t setup properly and I would be unable to receive the college credit originally promised to me upon completion. I’m not saying all high school teachers hate their jobs, but as people mentioned in our discussion the “no kids left behind” program tends to leave teachers powerless and in the end hurts students. I used to believe that after completing high school you would move onto college, and after completing college would be able to work in the field of your choice after receiving your degree. I now realize that colleges are lacking in the proper training needed to obtain jobs, it takes more than just a piece of paper to land that “dream” job. In order to help fix this issue and “add” what’s lacking I believe we need to change the way we educate our younger students, like focus on the critical thinking and problem solving that will actually be used in day-to-day life, instead of the normal “read” and “memorize” random facts that will almost never be applied during their life. Also as they get older encourage them to develop more interpersonal relationships, so once they enter college they will be able to meet people in their related fields and hopefully find someone to either provide them with an internship or mentorship.

Growing up in a big city like Des Moines it was nice to see how a community with only 10,000 people can really come together and help one another like one big happy family. In Des Moines it’s easy to walk into Wal-Mart everyday for a week and never see anyone you know, which after seeing Pella today seems very unfortunate. After college I hope to start my career in a community similar to Pella, where you actually socialize with your neighbors rather than just know their first or last names. Even though I am used to having all the amenities you need just around the corner in Des Moines, I dislike not having a more personal relationship with the people around me. I am the type of personal that likes meeting and talking with people “face-to-face”. I have always thought it was “Who you know, and not what you know” that determines whether or not you’ll be a successful person or not, and today really made this appear more true than ever before. The part I enjoyed most today was getting the chance to meet and speak with people that I normally wouldn’t be able to. As the President of Des Moines Area Community Colleges Urban Campus I help setup events for the students and sometimes for the local community, but not as much as I would like to. The Rotary Club seems like a great place to meet new interesting and open minded people as well as a good place start giving back to my community on a larger scale.

Before today I would have thought that my greatest asset was being able to get along with people from very different and diverse backgrounds. After doing the strengthfinder 2.0 and discussing them in our sessions today I don’t believe that anyone has only one great asset to offer. I believe that many people do not truly know what are their TRUE strengths or weakness, and usually mistake or flip-flop the two around. I think all of my top 5 strengths listed in the strengthfinder 2.0 results are great assets. For example Ideation is great because sometimes you have people that are the DOERS and not the THINKERS. Giving someone a ton of ideas, no matter how random or weird they may seem, helps someone figure out how and where to start. Also Inclusion is great because it means that people like me want to make sure everyone is involved and that no one gets left sitting on the sidelines feeling lonely and ignored. One of the speakers today made a comment that I really liked and agreed with, which was about working with his brothers because their weaknesses were his strengths and his strengths were there weaknesses. It was neat and very interesting to see how they all seemed to balance each other out. In that example each person’s greatest asset would have been all of their weaknesses and all of their strengths. In the end as long as you aren’t afraid to admit defeat, aren’t afraid to fall face first, and at least have the courage to try something even though you’re scared you have a great asset that anyone would appreciate.