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My Story - Ashley Kiefert

Ashley Kiefert - Leadership Coordinator
Fargo-Moorhead Chamber

So it was my first ever PIF tour… I was a little nervous, a lot excited and filled with anticipation. It was a special and unique tour for me as it would be the first ever for the Chamber of Commerce Youth Leadership Program, so it had a bit of an expectation to live up to (which by the way was blown out of the water.) As the students and parents started to pull into the parking lot and the lawn began to fill up with sleeping bags and pillows, my heart started to race, it was finally happening. The road to this particular PIF tour was over a year in the making, it consisted of meetings and budgets and more meetings and more budgets, it felt like the time would never come, but on August 17th in a parking lot filled with students, parents, mayors and political officials from two states, we cheered, waved our goodbyes and embarked on what was to be….the best trip of my life.

The nervous energy soon turned into a dance party as we made our way down the Interstate, quiet chatter quickly turned into real conversation and strangers were becoming friends, it was more than I could have hoped for, and this was only the first 50 miles. My expectations for the students was undecided, I have had two years of Youth Leadership students under my belt, each class being different, you never really know what to expect when you randomly select 50 kids from 9 different schools and send them on busses to explore North Dakota… But I can now say with every confidence, the one thing I am most proud of from this trip is the students…I have never witnessed such compassion, leadership, intensity and dedication from a group of students. Their energy translated into amazing service projects, hilarious bus rides, even more hilarious dance parties and solid friendships. I felt completely at ease with the students, they went out of their way to make me and every person they came in contact with feel important and valued, I felt proud to serve alongside of them.

As we all gathered in our celebration city of Medora (on what had to be the windiest day in North Dakota History,) I looked around at the intense beauty of the North Dakota Landscape, sprinkled in the background were students laughing, square dancing and chowing down on steaks bigger than their heads, it was the single most fulfilling scene in my mind to date. As we all finished up dinner, took millions of pictures and circled up for some songs and activities, smiles were all that I could see.

I think about my PIF tour often and smile picturing all the moments that made me laugh and everything in between. I have heard it a million times from Greg, the college leaders and bus tour vets “STLF Changes Lives,” and you know what? It does.

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