Washington State University extension faculty have found short-term international assignments beneficial to both themselves and their clientele at home. Some say the experience has changed their lives in unexpected ways.

Why is it so important that WSU be involved in international work?

"Washington is the most trade-dependent state in the nation," said Jan Noel, associate director of WSU International Programs. "One out of three jobs in the state is directly or indirectly related to trade. It's of huge economic importance to us."

Beyond that, she believes it is vital that Americans get a chance to view their own culture from a different perspective (see article on WSU International Programs). Extension faculty who have taken advantages of travel opportunities concur.

David Youmans, extension rural development specialist, had more than 20 years of international experience before joining the WSU faculty in 1977. He worked in the private sector and with voluntary aid programs in Canada, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Mexico, Egypt, Gaza, Brazil, and Bolivia.

Since coming to WSU, he served five years in Lesotho, two years in Jordan and eight years in association with the International Marketing Program for Agricultural Commodities and Trade, visiting offshore markets for Washington agricultural commodities and products in Latin America, Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa.

"International work has become a way of life," Youmans said. "It expands borders, scope, mind-set, values, tolerance appreciation, and expertise. It also develops multi-dimensionalism in the faculty member who open up to it. International work enables me to reach my clientele because they themselves are culturally diverse and struggle with the need to be understood and accepted."

Youmans currently serves as liaison between the Hispanic community and the WSU Prosser Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center to identify important issues and develop programs to address these issues.

Tom Platt, who is an area extension educator specializing in livestock for Lincoln, Adams, and Spokane counties, is one of a number of current and past extension faculty invited by Youmans to accompany him on overseas market explorations.

Funded by IMPACT, Platt traveled with Youmans to Korea, Japan and Taiwan in 1991 to explore market opportunities for Washington beef. "It helped me better understand international trade in meat," Platt said, "and it helped me develop educational programs for Washington's beef producers focused on the importance of international trade to their businesses."

David Bragg, chair and area faculty of the Garfield County Cooperative Extension office since 1981, also credits Youmans for getting him involved in international work.

"I became involved in international work in 1992. David asked me about crops that had a niche in export marketing and I mentioned Canola. This resulted in an IMPACT discovery trip to the Canadian Prairie with David along with livestock faculty member Frank Hen-drix of Yakima County. After a long journey we published three university publications on Canola, pulse crops, and Canadian livestock marketing."

Bragg and Youmans traveled to Japan to explore markets for southeast Washington Canola growers. While in Japan, Bragg set out on his own to visit traders and experience Japanese life. "When I came back to Pomeroy, people were shocked by my excessive politeness and tendency to say kanichiwa (good day).

"Since that two-week Far East trip, he has journeyed to the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan almost every year to network with AG Canada and university crop people on pulse crop management and Canola integrated pest management.

He has gained a reputation as an expert on insect pests of pulse crops and is invited regularly to speak on the topic at symposia and workshops. He also has conducted a research trial at Lethbridge with a Canadian colleague.

International work "has changed my life as a scientist and educator," Bragg said. "It also made me a multi-cultural person, thanks to the mentoring capacity of David You-mans, who became my best friend as a result of our travels together."

John Burns, extension agronomist in the crop and soil sciences department, got his first taste of international work in 1991 when Youmans invited him to participate in a three-week trip to Hungary, Spain, and Egypt to evaluate potential markets for red lentils and conduct a market analysis on use and distribution of dry green peas.

"What this trip did was provide an excellent introduction to opportunities for international travel and hone some professional skills," Burns said.

"Upon returning from the three-week trip in 1991, I did a lot of cheerleading on the agronomic and market potential for the red lentil. The market analysis indicated potential market opportunities for eastern Washington lentil producers. However, market development takes time, so benefits of my trip were a lot longer in coming than I thought they would be."

Little did Burns know that six years later he would be back in the region on a different mission: participating in the reconstruction of Bosnia while on active duty as Agriculture Officer for the NATO stabilization forces.

"The trade exploratory trip with Youmans stimulated an interest in transferring to a U.S. Army Reserve Civil Affairs Brigade. I transferred to the 364th Civil Affairs Brigade in Portland in 1993."

In May 1997 the unit was activated and deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina to help with reconstruction.

"I was the Agriculture Officer (he held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel) and partnered with two Army veterinarians to work with local farmers, ministry officials, university faculty, and private industry. One of the more significant roles I assumed towards the end of the eight-month deployment was initiating efforts to develop a certified seed program for the country. This involved bringing seed professionals together who had been enemies during the war but had been professional coworkers prior to the war."

As a result of his deployment to Bosnia, Burns developed close working relationships with USDA Foreign Agricultural Service personnel in the Balkans. These relationships enhanced successes during the deployment and resulted in a request from FAS for him to assist in conducting a 10-day crop assessment during an extreme drought in Hungary, Croatia, and Slovenia in June of 2000 in his civilian role as extension agronomist.

Dora Rumsey, who was southeast district director of WSU Cooperative Extension before embarking on an international assignment in Armenia in January, also had previous international experience. International 4-H work took her to several countries in Central America while she was an extension educator at Oregon State.

After coming to Washington, she served as WSU coordinator for the Japanese-American Program for Professionals in Agriculture from 1992 to 1996. This program supported travel of one or two Washington extension faculty each year to Japan to visit agricultural programs there. She also hosted a Japanese prefecture agriculture minister and Bunda College faculty members from Malawi.

In her current assignment, Rumsey is helping develop a sustainable extension department and system in Armenia.

She has found international work to be personally fulfilling. "New people and new places heighten my sense of awareness, help me examine my values and put my life in perspective," she said. "When I began international work, I thought I could help others but I came away with understanding that I gained far more than others in the process."

Emmett Fiske, organizational effectiveness specialist, was bitten by the travel bug long before he came to Washington to work for Cooperative Extension. "I have been interested in Latin America since childhood," he said. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in northern coastal Peru between 1969 and 1971.

Beginning in 1990, he obtained a mini-grant from the WSU Office of International Programs to go to Chile and visit with representatives at several universities to see if they might be interested in pursuing collaborative possibilities at WSU.

"That initial trip was highly productive," Fiske said, "leading to memoranda of agreement with several universities. Since then, I have been back to Chile on almost an annual basis to maintain initial relationships as well as develop new ones."

During his brief trips, usually three or four weeks in duration, he usually offers one intensive short course on environmental conflict resolution to faculty, students, and professionals at universities in Santiago, Valdivia, and Temuco. He teaches the course in Spanish.

How has he benefited from international work? "If I had not gained international experience, I would have remained a myopic, ethno-centered individual. International living opened my eyes and mind to wonderous possibilities previously unfathomed." Fiske is appalled that fewer than 40 percent of the members of Congress have been overseas. "How can that be? I am very, very worried about the tendency of many people within the United States to promote a 'me first' attitude without attempting to understand how such arrogance might be viewed by someone from another culture.

"If I had my druthers, every young person in this country would be expected to spend some time in another cultureónot just dabbling as a tourist, but actually engaging in meaningful relationship development with others while also learning about another culture."

Scott Fedale, who is director of information technology and chair of the information department, got his first taste of international work just before he came to WSU.

"My first involvement was in 1988 when I was working for the University of Idaho and was hired by CAHE's (College of Agriculture and Home Economics) International Program Support office to go to Jordan for a month to conduct an assessment of personnel, equipment, and training needs for the communications section of the newly established National Center for Agricultural Research Technology Transfer.

"I conducted an evaluation of the personnel working at the center, their equipment, their budget, and the training needs for the staff based on a set of expectations that had been established for the center.

" Since that first international assignment, he also has worked in Trinidad, Russia, and Africa.

" The benefits? "

These experiences have certainly made me a much more global thinker and they gave me a better understanding of different culture and how differently the world is viewed by people in other countries. This has enabled me to do a much better job when I work with extension personnel to talk about audiences, cultural considerations in information reception, patterns of communication, as well as other things. It has certainly helped me when working with minority populations here in the United States."

Dennis Brown,
Information Department

Related articles:
Globalizing Extension
IMPACT Center: Paving the Way for Washington Agriculture Overseas
WSU International Programs: Providing Another Window on the World