FLEX Program student Alla Harutyunyan had a great opportunity to meet CEO of Barton Country Chamber of Commerce.
Alla shares “Yesterday, I had my job shadow with CEO of Barton County Chamber of Commerce, Astra Ferris. I chose her to shadow, as I am really interested in business, tourism, and in creating a great community to live in.
I learned a lot of essential and important things about community development through tourism and business. I learned ways to advertise in order to attract a lot of people and to promote progress in a community. I learned about the activities that a city or county chamber of commerce promote in order to raise funds for county projects. This includes helping people sell their products, develop the agriculture and farming, and at the same time to have better life. I gained a better understanding about the counties in Missouri, specifically the history of Barton County. Did you know that the 33rd President of the United States, Harry S.Truman, was born in Lamar?
I understand that being a leader is to never consider that you are better than others, but the opposite. The leader is someone who is able to be a friend, to build the team, to inspire, and to motivate others. The leader is the one that does not say “I”, but says “we”, does not say “‘go”, but says” ‘let’s go”. True leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders!
At the end of the day I met Lamar City administrator Lynn Colton, and had the opportunity to talk with him about the role and the importance of the local administration for the city, and took a picture with him”.
We hope that when Alla returns back to Armenia, she’ll use the new knowledge and experience gained at these meetings to attract more people visit Armenia and her community.