The Agricultural Leadership Development Program consists of a series of classroom and travel seminars that require approximately 40 training days through a two-year period. Most often, the classroom seminars are on the LSU campus. These three- day seminars are generally held Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in January, February, October and December. Travel seminars include trips in June to Washington, D.C., the first year and the Chicago Board of Trade the second year. An international trip completes the program at the end of the second year.
Seminars are core learning opportunities. Diverse seminar subjects reflect the challenges facing agriculture and natural resource leaders. They emphasize:
- leadership skill building
- effective communication
- the effects of emerging technology
- relationships among population trends, production and consumption, global competition
- commodity policy issues
- public policies at the national, state and community levels
- building and maintaining family wealth
- economic development
These subjects also arise in the travel seminars where they are studied within the context of different cultures, organizations and communities.