Go among the People: Travel as Nontraditional Professional Development

Extension agents obtain professional development (PD) through a variety of means, some of which have been critiqued as lacking in creativity or involvement of experiential learning approaches. As Extension engages in reinvention and reimaging in response to competition in the information marketplace, direct and candid connections with a changing clientele are essential. In this article, I propose the value of travel as a form of nontraditional PD, present an approach to manufacturing relevant encounters, and include a case study to illustrate the application of this approach. Nontraditional PD allows professionals to creatively adapt programming to community need and character.