Arizona’s Center for Rural Leadership, Project CENTRL, is now accepting applications for Class 29. Rural leaders, farmers, ranchers, and individuals working in businesses that serve agriculture or rural Arizona who want to make a difference in their community are encouraged to apply.   

Project CENTRL is a premier leadership development program with over 600 graduates since the first class started in 1983. Alumni are active community leaders and dedicated volunteers who share a common vision of making rural Arizona and agriculture more healthy, vibrant, and sustainable. The mission of Project CENTRL is to equip and empower leaders to meet the needs of rural Arizona. 

“Project CENTRL gives participants a life-changing experience in just one year,” explains former CENTRL Board President Cheryl Goar. “The people you will meet in your class, the travel across the state and the leadership skills you will gain promise to give you that boost you might be looking for to go to the next level, whatever it is you choose to do to improve rural Arizona.” Goar serves as the Executive Director of the Arizona Nursery Association.

The program is a competitively selected, tuition-free, 12-month leadership development program. Each class has 16 people, and visits seven different sites throughout the state and includes seminars in Mexico and in Washington, D.C. The curriculum is designed to meet you where you are in your leadership journey and builds personal leadership skills, educates on issues facing rural Arizona, and connects leaders to each other and experts.

Project CENTRL is a partnership between the non-profit Center for Rural Leadership and Arizona Cooperative Extension in the UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). Applicants must be at least 25 years of age by June 2020 and a full-time resident of Arizona.

Detailed program information and an application packet are available online at www.centrl.org. Additional information is available by calling the Project CENTRL office at 602-827-8227. All application materials are due on March 15, 2020 but candidates are encouraged to complete and submit earlier.