CHANGING DIRECTIONS

Robert Jolly, emeritus professor of economics, worked “seven years, dawn to dusk” to help usher Iowa agriculture through the farm crisis, and secure additional funding for ag research.

In his 32 years at Iowa State, Robert Jolly had several job titles and a wide array of duties. “One of the things I always appreciated was being able to change direction without leaving town,” he jokes.

Jolly’s most recent direction at Iowa State was leading the Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative.

“Dean Woteki asked me and Steve Nissan to put some wheels under the initiative,” Jolly says. “We started with a multi-pronged approach, working with faculty and students, developing educational materials and building entrepreneurship into the curriculum and activities.”

That was in 2005. It wasn’t long before Jolly realized he was in familiar territory.

“People sometimes think it’s puzzling professors get involved in entrepreneurship. But if you look at what we do, we look for opportunities, find money, develop programs and fill needs. Those are entrepreneurial activities,” he says.

Jolly was hired by Iowa State in 1979 as an extension economist, but soon added research and teaching to his responsibilities. In 1985, an administrative position came his way.

“Dean Kolmer asked me to move into an assistant dean position. At the time, I was very involved in developing programs to help farmers, lenders and communities survive the farm crisis. I agreed to a parttime position to look at strategic issues the Experiment Station was facing, since state funding for agricultural research had languished.”

There was a strong sense Iowa didn’t want to go through another farm crisis, and Jolly saw that as a good opportunity to increase funding for agricultural research.

He and others developed a legislative proposal to double the state’s appropriation for agricultural research, and garnered enough political support that the proposal was approved. For Jolly that success was a “career highlight.”

International work was another important part of Jolly’s Iowa State career. As Eastern Europe began to collapse, he worked on projects in the former Soviet Union, followed by more recent efforts in China and India.

Now international activities occupy some of Jolly’s retirement days. He works part-time for an Irish dairy and beef nutrition company he describes as “a second generation entrepreneurial business, using wonderfully innovative technology.”

He also is involved with  a startup non-governmental organization based in Chicago that provides financing and technical assistance to firms in dairy supply chains.

“The idea is to help farmers in developing countries grow their farm businesses and cooperatives while providing an acceptable rate of return for investors,” he says.  These international efforts follow the same pattern Jolly exhibited during his time at Iowa State.

“When I look back at the things that were the most rewarding, it was usually pulling together people and money to work on a project,” he says. “I have
always gotten the greatest satisfaction taking the university to the people.”

CHANGING LIVES BY TAKING CHANCES

Kevin Kimle draws on his experience with startups including his own, E-markets, when teaching students about entrepreneurship.

Kevin Kimle knew he was taking a leap of faith.

He had a great job working for Pioneer Hi-Bred International in business development.  He negotiated deals and performed market analyses.  In doing so he used one of the first web browsers even created to read reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Kimle (’91 economics) began thinking: This technology has enormous potential to serve the agriculture industry at large.  He knew he could make it happen.  He understood it was a leap of faith, but he had faith in his idea, his abilities and the people he would gather around him.

“A light bulb went off about the power of creating software to create efficiencies in how agriculture worked.  It was a cost-effective way to move and share information between buyers and sellers.  My friend, Dave Krog, and I had fresh ideas on how that could play out,” Kimle says.

Kimle and Krog (’80 agronomy, MS ’82 economics, PhD ’88 economics) left Pioneer to build the business that would become E-Markets.  The Internet-based electronic commerce system was the first of its kind in agriculture and food industry.  Following the success of E-Markets, Kimle launched Decision Commodities, a company that provided risk management tools similar to mutual funds for grain producers.

“Kevin was always thinking of unique ways to address problems in our industry, and he gave me the entrepreneurial fever as well,” Krog says. “He had a vision that the Internet could bring significant value to agriculture and in particular bring efficiencies and scalabilities to identity-preserved grain production and contracting.  Kevin was very confident and had a passion for the vision and what we were doing. It was a lot of fun to work with Kevin and build a business from scratch.”

It was this type of vision and initiative that made Kimle a stand out choice for the Bruce Rastetter Chair in Entrepreneurship in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, which he filled in 2009.  Rastetter, an Iowa agricultural entrepreneur who created Heartland Pork and Hawkeye Renewables, endowed the position as a way to infuse entrepreneurship into the university experience.

“I gave the gift with the goal of having a chair that taught classes on entrepreneurship, but more importantly that would get students excited about entrepreneurship, about why it’s important and the opportunities it provides.  Kevin reflects that.  You can see it in his students and when you sit in on his classes or visit with him,” Rastetter says.  “The challenge is continuing to grow when you have success.  Kevin is asking people to participate in offering internships and scholarships, collaborating with partners on campus and continuing to raise private and public funds to support their efforts.”

Kimle says he loves the challenge of grooming future entrepreneurs at ISU.

“They took a chance on me,” Kimle admits.  “There’s a difference between real-world experience and creating academic experiences.  At its core, this is an enterprise-building job.  But aspects are different than any other job I’ve had.”

Kimle got his first taste of running a business as a teenager when his dad turned over his family’s hog operation to him on their diversified farm in Nebraska.  His degree in agricultural business from the University of Nebraska and a series of internships with small startups helped him graduate from “shovel mechanic” to entrepreneur.

He also worked a stint for Senator Dave Karnes in Washington, D.C., before he earned his master’s in economics from Iowa State under the direction of Marvin Hayenga, whom Kimle still considers a trusted adviser.

From teaching courses to one-on-one student consultations, Kimle’s job description is packed.  A few items from his to-do list include:

■ Advise students through idea creation and business planning.

■ Connect students with mentors and resources.

■ Build outreach opportunitiesto foster entrepreneurship with alumni and professionals.

■ Design and lead international entrepreneurship experiences.

■ Teach introduction to agricultural marketing and entrepreneurship in agriculture courses.

But he says it all comes down to one guiding principle—changing people’s lives for the better.

“It’s about creating dialogue in the right place at the right time. We can talk technology or building companies, but it is about people changing peoples’ lives in a lot of different ways, whether it be professors, professionals or students,” Kimle says.

KEVIN KIMLE DOESN’T MINCE WORDS

Kimle uses a merit point system to evaluate his students like most professors. But, he takes it a step farther by offering this “interpretation” of students’ final letter grades.

(A) – Your work is fantastic. I’m energized by your words, ideas and actions. You took this assignment seriously, exceeded expectations and exhibited great effort and insight. I would be proud to show this work to others.

(B) – Solid work, but it lacks sizzle. Your work was diligent according to the assignment and standards and was completed on time. Some parts of the work lacked completeness or thorough attention to detail.

(C) -I’m getting a little bored reading your assignment or listening to your presentation.  Parts of the assignment were missing, incomplete and lacking careful attention.  Clearly, this could have used more effort and caring.

(D) – I’m agitated that you wasted my time. There are major missing pieces in the assignment, and it’s difficult to detect much concern on your part about your work.

(F) – Ugh. You’re wasting my time and yours. You just plain did not try.

GRADUATING GLOBAL CITIZENS

By Barbara McBreen

Shelley Taylor, director of the college’s study abroad program, traveled to Rome in May as an adviser for the Dean’s Global Agricultural and Food Leadership Program.

Students taking a study abroad program in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences earn a passport stamped with experience. That’s key to graduating global citizens, says Shelley Taylor, director of the college’s study abroad program.

“Students need to have cross-cultural ease, an understanding of the interconnectedness of the world and a view that encompasses multiple perspectives,” Taylor says.

Currently, more than 25 percent of the college’s graduating classes study abroad. The goal is to have at least 50 percent. Taylor says the college’s program is one of the best in the nation. She credits the strategic planning, leadership and support of its administrators.

“We have progressive thinking leaders who understand the value of a global view,” Taylor says. “We also couldn’t do this without the involvement and dedication of our faculty.”

During her 11 years in the ag study abroad office, Taylor has seen the transformation of students returning from study abroad trips. The academically intensive program isn’t about being a tourist.It’s about immersing students in other cultures and working with organizations like the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to solve problems.

Taylor also serves as assistant director of Global Ag Programs. She tracks global issues, which helps her office coordinate study abroad plans for students and faculty. She also meets and collaborates with educators around the world to discuss academic experiences and opportunities for students.

Weaving together cultural experiences and analytical skills helps students understand complex global issues. Taylor says one student who traveled down the Yangtze River appreciated the insights she gained about the controversy surrounding the construction of the Three Gorges Dam.

Getting students to experience situations outside their comfort zone also builds confidence and problem solving skills, Taylor says. Students begin developing and practicing those skills when faced with simple challenges that involve food, traffic, currency, customs and language or the more complex challenge of interpreting a new culture.

She recalls one student’s semester in Brazil. The student had never been in a situation where he was in the minority, so he didn’t understand why everyone was asking him questions about his background.

“He finally realized that he was ‘the foreigner’ who looked and spoke differently than everyone else and that realization helped him see things from a different perspective,” Taylor says.

Another student was visiting a country where one of his favorite fruits was grown. Taylor says the experience gave him the global perspective on how produce is moved throughout the world. It also gave him an understanding about “fair trade” and the economics behind trade issues.

Studying abroad is an investment in a student’s career because a global view is an important asset for both employers in the U.S. and abroad. In fact, Taylor says, “students packing to go to college should consider a passport as essential as a computer.”

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Visit the Agriculture and Life Sciences Study Abroad Office online at: http://www.global.ag.iastate.edu/.

STARGAZING, SHOWING STUDENTS A DIVERSE WORLD

University Professor Richard Schultz develops and leads study abroad trips for students like Ian Herrmann. Here they trek through a desert in China.

By Susan Thompson

Richard Schultz’s international connections are always with him – all he needs to do is look up.

“It is exciting to look at the stars at night and know that thousands of miles away there are friends who live on the steep hillsides along the Salween River in China, or in grass and mud huts in central Uganda, or in the new capital of Kazakhstan, or the Himalayan Mountains of Nepal, who can see the same stars,” he says.

Schultz (’65 forestry, ’68 MS and ’70 PhD forest biology), a University Professor of natural resource ecology and management, wants to give his students the same type of feeling.

“My motivation is student-centered, exposing undergraduates to the diversity of peoples, places, lifestyles and living standards on our planet,” he says. “At the same time, I want them to appreciate the similarity of people around the world.”

Schultz began working internationally in the mid-1990s by hosting visiting professors from South Korea and Venezuela.

While he continues to host visiting professors and students, his main focus now is helping develop and conduct study abroad trips for students in Iowa State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

“Dick has been an incredible group leader,” says Shelley Taylor, director of the college’s study abroad programs. “He develops programs in non-traditional study abroad locations with an eye for what will be interesting and relevant to students. He strives to provide them an academic adventure that also is fun.”

Schultz has led three student groups to Korea, guided groups to China each of the last six years and is one of three faculty members who have led an experiential program for students to Uganda twice. In 2011, he will lead student groups to Turkey and Greece, plus China and Uganda.

“I get tremendous satisfaction when I watch the transformation of students as they begin to sense the awe and wonder of other places and cultures,” Schultz says. “These are life-changing experiences.”

A testament to his teaching ability came in 2008, when Schultz was one of six regional recipients of the USDA Food and Agriculture Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award.

Schultz teaches courses in ecology, soils, watershed management, plus a new course in resource systems of developing nations. Students in all his courses develop class presentations on global natural resource issues.

His involvement in international programs has made him a better teacher, Schultz says. “I believe international work gives me a better perspective of what goes on in the world, and provides me with many examples I can share with students.”

When he’s not teaching and traveling, Schultz is active in outreach activities that support his research program, which deals with the placement, design and installation of conservation buffers in agricultural landscapes.