An Excercise in Growth

Senior Niarra Anthony grows her skills, herself at AFA Leadership Conference

By Charlie Morrison

Sometimes getting to where one wants to be in life requires skills you didn’t even know you needed, the kind of skills one only gains by having experiences. The work in the lab, hitting the books every weekend, collecting data in the field, the focus of an agriculture education student at the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) is generally on professional development, but sometimes you need a little personal development too.

Enter Senior Food and Animal Science major Niarra Anthony, who took that lesson to heart by, for the second straight year, pursuing some personal growth at the American Future of America (AFA) Leaders Conference held this past November. This year Anthony took her participation to the next level, experiencing the conference in her role as an AFA “Ambassador.”

The AFA is an organization that has, for the past quarter-century, dedicated itself to developing transformational leadership in the agriculture industry. The organization’s dual-thrusts are scholarships coupled with their intensive leadership development events, like the four-day AFA Leaders Conference.

The AFA builds the conference out with undergraduates in mind. Each of four learning tracts at the event are matched to students’ respective year in college, helping them cultivate core competencies in relationship development, collaboration, career management, cultural EQ, interpersonal IQ, and systems thinking.

For Anthony herself, working on her soft skills rounds out her college education.

“There were a lot of things they discussed that you don’t necessarily learn at college but conferences like this motivate me and inspire me to keep doing what I’m doing, because the fact that I’m even able to be there as an Ambassador means I must be doing something right,” says Anthony, a TSUAg Dean’s Scholar, with a telling smile.

“I learned a lot. As a senior in Track 4, most of the conference was devoted to preparing us for our first job after college,” she continues. “A lot of it was dedicated to making sure we had the right mindset going into our careers and enhancing our leadership skills.”

And while for Anthony, the next step in her career is not a job, but rather Purdue University’s M.S. in Veterinary Clinical Sciences program, which she is slated to begin this fall, the conference still offered real value and personal growth. For her, it’s about understanding how to handle change in one’s professional life.

“We spent most of the time talking to industry professionals, getting their perspectives on what they wished they knew before they went straight into their jobs,” she continues. “I think one of the main things I gained was understanding that your path is not going to look the way you think it's going to look.”

“Animals are my comfort zone. I’m not too proficient at the people side of the business world, marketing oneself and stuff like that,” says Anthony. “I want to be a little more well-rounded and to get as much experience as I can. That’s how I learn best, by actively doing things.”

Anthony, who is also a member of MANRRS, Delta Sigma Theta and is a TSU Community Service Scholar, is a strong proponent of experiential learning, and the AFA Leaders Conference was no exception. And while the skills she honed at the conference and continues to improve on her own won’t help her too much in her current struggle with her organic chemistry class, they’ll help her in the classroom of life.

“I think experiences really make your college career,” she says. “It’s all about what you’re able to gain from it, and for me I’m not really gaining if I’m not trying a lot of different things.”