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Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle influenced me from a young age after I read Plato's Republic and Symposium. I learned about Socratic dialogue. I studied the life and times of Aristotle. I learned to make observations of events in the environment around me. I learned to use deductive reasoning.

I believe those philosophers' teachings helped me develop my top three most marketable skills. They developed collaborative leadership, creative problem-solving, and integrated marketing communication skills over many years.

I met members of a chapter of a fan association at a small science fiction convention. The Star Trek V: The Final Frontier movie was playing in the United States. I met an actress, Nichelle Nichols, from the movie there as well. These two meetings shaped the direction of my life for many years to come.

The chapter of the fan association had monthly meetings at the Virginia Science Museum in Richmond, Virginia. Members of the chapter also volunteered at the museum. They donated their volunteer hours to the chapter, which reduced the cost of the meeting spot in the museum each month. I joined the chapter and started volunteering as an exhibit interpreter. 

I was in college at John Tyler Community College at the time. I was a volunteer exhibit interpreter in the Computer Lab exhibit and the IMAX Dome Planetarium Theater. I studied computer science. 

The Richmond Astronomical Society also had monthly meetings at the museum. I met Jennifer Barlow during one of their meetings. I enjoyed the eloquent presentation she gave at the meeting. I began celebrating Dark Sky Week. I grew up in a rural area on a farm. I enjoyed a dark night sky overhead on clear nights. I had concern for the preservation of a dark night sky as well. 

When the science fiction fan association chapter, USS Chesapeake, launched a chapter, Shuttle Nighthawk, I was one of the founders of the shuttle. I was chair of the Operations Department. The USS Nighthawk lasted several years. I rejoined the USS Chesapeake. After a while the USS Chesapeake left STARFLEET.

I became the Assistant Regional Division Chief of Region One for STARFLEET, the International Star Trek Fan Association, a few years later. It was an unpaid volunteer position. I was a member of the USS Heimdal by then. 

I took some online courses and became a cruise consultant for a while with World Ventures. This was my first experience with multilevel marketing. My second experience was as an independent consultant for Arbonne.

Between the two experiences with multilevel marketing, I became an affiliate for another company. This was my first experience with affiliate marketing. I went to the local city hall in Petersburg. I applied for a home-based Internet permit. I applied for a business license. The permit and the license showed I had permission to conduct business. I introduced potential customers to Arbonne and LaLa Leggings products. I gave interested people the website of either company. It depended on their interest in vegan protein powders or leisure fitness fashions. 

I transferred from John Tyler Community College to J Sargeant Reynolds Community College. I studied computer programming. I liked that many professors currently worked in the fields they taught at JSRCC. 

Organizations need people to recruit new members for them. Also, there is a need for communication with some members. to retain them as members. I heard about an opening in STARFLEET Region One for a Recruiting and Retention Officer. Region One states are Kentucky, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

My involvement with DarkSky International led to a lot of volunteering for the organization, including being a delegate for them. I met with park rangers and discussed Dark Sky Place certification (Apply, 2024). I did interviews for articles on my volunteer activities.

I transferred from J Sargeant Reynolds Community College to Richard Bland College of William and Mary. I worked on the last courses I needed for an Associate degree in science. One of my courses there led to a lot of research into farming in the USA. 

I attended an online Lesbians Who Tech 2023 Pride Summit. My favorite presentation was Amelia Wietting's How to Hack Aa Tractor: The Cyber Tractor Challenge. 

While I worked on a contract as a substitute teacher at a local high school for the third year, I attended a presentation by Dr. Bill Daggett on what he called the Age of AI and IoT. Courses I took at Richard Bland College led to a lot of research papers and scholarly articles I found with Google Scholar. I saw what he said as a call to teach students to do what AI cannot do. And farmers needed AI and the IoT automation of their farm businesses as a solution to a farm labor shortage. 

I began an examination of soil sensors and farm management software on my own. I learned systems analysis from classes at John Tyler and J Sargeant Reynolds Community Colleges. That training helped me sort through hardware, operating systems and software for a good fit.

I began an online course, FCU Ag Biz Basic (FCU ABB) through Farm Credit University. Classes in college on mathematics and accounting helped me with the cash income statements, balance sheets, and statement of ownership equity forms at Farm Credit University. 

When I graduated from Richard Bland College, I transferred to Old Dominion University. I enrolled in the online classes available in the College of Arts and Letters. I had a list of twelve courses to pass for a Bachelor's degree in Science. I majored in Leadership from the first online class. 

SciStarter accepted my application for Ambassador. During April in 2024, I conducted an online celebration of Astronomy for SciStarter Citizen Science Month and Astronomers Without Borders Global Astronomy Month. 

I joined STARFLEET's Office of Communications as a Social Media Services Assistant. I manage the organization's Pinterest boards and write articles for the organization's publications. 

For the skill of integrated marketing communications, I put Social Media Services Assistant, Recruiting And Retention Officer, and SciStarter Ambassador together. The brand of STARFLEET is as close to Gene Roddenberry's vision of Star Trek as Paramount allows the organization. Promoting the brand across all social media and communication methods in a consistent way requires this skill (Cohen, T., 2024). SciStarter focuses on citizen science and the promotion of it as something that members of the general public can do to benefit researchers and scientists (SciStarter, 2020). Promoting the brand in a consistent way across all social media and personal communication with the general public is necessary in this case as well.

For the skill of creative problem-solving, I put Arbonne Consultant, home-based Internet business, and FCU Ag Biz Basics (FCU ABB) course together in the same group. I have problems with finding potential customers for vegan products and what permits and licenses I need. I need to know how to prepare to meet a lender for a farm loan. I had to define the problems, come up with possible solutions and try the possible solutions in real life (Creative, 2017).

For the skill of collaborative leadership, I put SMV/VAM Volunteer Exhibit Interpreter, ARDC of Region One Sciences, and DarkSky International Delegate in the same group. The goal of staffing an exhibit at a museum involves a few departments in the museum. The goal of Region One Sciences is to have fun while learning about science (Starfleet’s, 2025). There are many people who are chairs of science departments in many chapters, including me and the person that I am an assistant to. An international organization with many conservation activities in many places has many people at several levels of authority performing various duties. Decision making is an activity that many people perform, communication occurs between a number of people and many people have various responsibilities in the mission of the organization (Collaborative, 2024).

 

References 

1. Cohen, T. (2021, August 4). What Is Integrated Marketing? Definition, Tips and Examples. Wix Blog. https://www.wix.com/blog/integrated-marketing

 

2. Creative Problem Solving a quick, down-and-dirty handbook Inclusive Innovation Connector Meeting Barcelona. (2017). https://brdo.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/cps_handbook.pdf

 

3. Collaborative Leadership | EBSCO. (2024). EBSCO Information Services, Inc. | Www.ebsco.com. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/business-and-management/collaborative-leadership

 

4. SciStarter. (2020). SciStarter - SciStarter. SciStarter. https://scistarter.org/

 

5. Starfleet’s Region One Sciences. (2025). Scienlaric.com. https://scienlaric.com/r1sci/R1Science.htm#toc

 

6. Apply for Dark Sky Place certification. (2024, September 11). DarkSky International. https://darksky.org/what-we-do/international-dark-sky-places/apply/

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