Ethical Leadership Is All Around Us

  Look around Springfield. What do you see?

  We started our day out at Scholars House for breakfast, before heading out to our first stop in Springfield, an event venue on Commercial Street called Historic Firehouse No. 2. Once there, the owner of the Firehouse told us about some of the fascinating history of Springfield, and passionately shared with us what she and others were doing to preserve and improve historic C-Street. It was really interesting to learn how much history there is right there in the ~6-block area of C-Street.

  We then continued our journey with our service project for the day. We went to a local community garden, where we worked for a couple hours planting strawberries, fruit trees, and blackberries. As a student in the School of Agriculture, this was my favorite part of the day. In several of my classes we've been discussing issues surrounding food security, hunger, and poverty, so it was cool to see what was being done right here in Springfield to combat those problems.

  We finished our day with a tour of Askinosie Chocolate Factory. I found their commitment to their farmers fascinating, as our tour guide told us about how the company practices direct trade and profit-sharing with their farmers. But their commitment to the global community goes even beyond that. They also sell rice and hot-chocolate from the countries they work in, and send all the profits back to be used for community development. They gain nothing from these efforts, yet their commitment to the communities their farmers are in motivates them to help in any way they can.

  What do I see when I look around Springfield? I see Ethical Leadership in action. From the work being done to preserve and improve historic Commercial Street, to the solution to hunger being provided by the community garden, to the international efforts of Askinosie, I see people who are dedicated to changing the world for the better. In the case of Askinosie, the worldwide impact is clear. But the work being done on C-Street and in the community garden is just as important, as changing one community changes our world in a small way.

~Delaney