The national beef checkoff hosted an interactive leadership training with millennial students in Pennsylvania last week as part of the Millennial 2 Millennial (M2M) Advocate Program, which connects young adults in the northeastern U.S. with a passion for advocating for the beef community.

The day-long training session offered four students from Pennsylvania State University and two students from Delaware Valley University an opportunity to learn ways create open and positive dialogue about beef.

John Park, D.Ed., director with Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP, and David Wolfgang, VMD, director with the Bureau of Animal Health & Diagnostic Services joined beef council staff to help facilitate the program, which included an inspirational talk about why advocacy is important, how to build a leadership brand, and how to tackle tough questions.

The students also visited with Gregory Hostetter, Pennsylvania Deputy Secretary for Animal Health and Food Safety, who joined the students for lunch and emphasized the importance of getting out and engaging with consumers.

The M2M program participants will be partnered with M2M alumni — who participated in the program last year — to gain insight from their experiences. Together, this group of new advocates and alumni will promote beef across the commonwealth and the northeast United States. Tarrah Freund, 2016 Pennsylvania Beef Ambassador, and Kara Zolocsik, M2M alumni student, joined the 2016-2017 team for an engaging day of leadership development.