Staff voice: Seeing the bigger picture through smaller stories

Quentin Tyler is the director of MSU Extension and the senior associate dean for outreach and engagement in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

I’ve had the privilege of participating in multiple Spartan Bus Tours. Each has taken me to different communities and introduced me to some remarkable people.

You might think that after thousands of miles and so many stops, I’d have a pretty good sense of the breadth of MSU’s impact. And I do.

As director of MSU Extension, I spend countless hours thinking about how we connect the leading research and vast resources of our great university to all 83 counties of this state, and how we can do it better.

Yet somehow, each tour still manages to surprise me. And this year’s journey through southern Michigan was no exception.

When we set out on the tour, I expected to see plenty of connections to MSU Extension, because I know the work we do. We visited the Bovee Drain Field, a research site of the Institute of Water Research, and heard about efforts to translate scientific findings into conservation practices. As the community outreach arm of the university, MSU Extension plays an important role in helping that knowledge reach the people who can put it to use.

At St. Julian Winery in Paw Paw, we heard about the role MSU Extension plays in supporting Michigan’s wine and grape industry through our leading viticulture research and education.

And I was especially proud to visit our staff at MSU’s Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center, where our folks study everything from fruit varieties to emerging agricultural technologies. The work happening in those fields has real implications for Michigan growers, helping them operate better and respond to changing conditions and plant diseases.

This tour reminded me, however, that our impact isn’t always expected or measured in major research initiatives or large-scale partnerships. More often than not, it’s found in the personal experiences from people’s everyday lives.

When we stepped off the bus to a surprise receiving line of green and white pom-poms waved by staff at Corewell Health, many of them shared their formative Spartan experiences as proud alums. But my favorite part of that stop was learning that Melinda Gruber, president of the Corewell Health Foundation, was raving to a colleague of mine about the virtual “Foundations of Gardening” class she takes through MSU Extension.

At Dundee High School, we met a student named Journey Williams. Journey is the secretary of Dundee’s chapter of the National Future Farmers of America organization. Bright and passionate, she told us about the summers she dedicates to her projects in 4-H — the youth development program delivered by MSU Extension — and how 4-H is shaping her life and her future.

In fact, she told us that “It’s been my favorite thing for the last 13 years.”

It’s hard not to feel overwhelmed with gratitude when a high schooler you’ve never met tells you that something you help make possible has been such a positive part of her life.

At MSU Extension, I’m particularly proud of and humbled by the role we play in advancing the mission of the nation’s premier land-grant university. We have more than 700 unbelievably dedicated employees serving all 83 Michigan counties, connecting the university’s research, expertise and educational resources with the people who can benefit from them.

But the Spartan Bus Tour continues to remind me that community impact is so much bigger than any one organization or program. MSU's reach is extraordinary because our people and partnerships are extraordinary.

Major research initiatives and collaborations demonstrate the breadth of our impact. So do the individual stories from people — high-schoolers and foundation presidents alike.

A conversation about a gardening class. A young person discovering her voice and potential through 4-H. These are the moments that stay with me long after the bus returns to campus.

I’ve traveled so much of Michigan on these tours already, but I know there will always be more stories to discover.

And I’m already looking forward to hearing more.