A Fun Weekend at the Ambassador Summit

From January 18th through the 22nd , we hosted the 2014 Ambassador Leadership Conference, which gave us the opportunity to connect with other ambassadors from all over the country.  The schools that attended included The Ohio State University, Purdue University, Auburn University, University of Arizona, University of Kentucky, University of Georgia, and University of Florida.

On Saturday, we participated in seminars given by professionals from Dow AgroSciences, and we toured the La Chua Trail at Paynes Prairie.  It was a great day for a walk on the trail, and it was really awesome to show all our guests one of Gainesville's hidden treasures.  There were a ton of huge alligators everywhere!

We left Gainesville Sunday morning to head to St. Augustine.  The bus ride was a great opportunity for us to get to know students from other institutions.  When we arrived in St. Augustine, we did a scavenger hunt on St. George Street, which is the historic downtown of the city. It was neat to see so much history. After that, we toured the Castillo de San Marcos, which is one of the oldest forts in the country.  We were able to watch the park volunteers fire the cannon.  The entire fort tour was like a step back in time; I recommend everyone going there for a visit.

On Monday, we got a behind the scenes look at the Anheuser-Busch plant in Jacksonville and a tour of EverBank Field. At EverBank field we were able to actually go out on the field, and we probably spent a good half hour just playing around on the field and taking some awesome pictures! I really can’t decide which one was my favorite of that day.

Finally, on our way back to Gainesville, we stopped in Hastings at UF’s Research and Extension Center, where they do all kinds of research with potatoes.  It was fascinating to hear the researchers talk about all the potato varieties they test for production.  Did you know a potato variety has to go through 10 years of testing before it is released for farmers to use? 

Overall, the trip was a really rewarding experience.  We walked away with first hand knowledge of the agriculture industry, complete with behind the scenes looks.  Of course, lifelong friendships were made with students from the other colleges, and plenty of new Facebook friends.

- Brian Skipper