Written by Jonathan Eisenthal
Emily Alm is inspired, curious, passionate. She’s optimistic about the future of rural Minnesota.
Leadership is something she has witnessed up close—her father, Todd Wentzel, is First Vice President at Minnesota Corn Growers Association.
For a decade Alm has worked for WinField United, the crop inputs division of Land O’Lakes, Inc. Her current role is innovation experience project manager in West Central Minnesota. To be effective, Alm has avidly pursued training and development programs. But when she thought about the next logical step in her career, and education beckoned, she didn’t see an MBA or Public Policy program as her path.
“I needed to step outside of the company to expand the horizons and broaden my network right here in rural Minnesota, and that’s why I chose the MARL program,” Alm explained.
While MARL’s 30 members of Class XIII represent the best and brightest from across the state, the program also established regional groups—Alm joined three other classmates who call West Central Minnesota home, to have a more granular focus on the local scene. Each group was tasked with taking a deep dive into a community in their local area, to learn what makes the place tick, and present that information to the entire class.
“We chose Granite Falls, and we spent a full day, we made the contacts and set up the tours and the whole schedule” said Alm. “We met the leaders who run businesses, organizations, and nonprofits. They do great work in their local community. The process allowed us to see what makes the community flourish. It was a lot of fun to see an area in a different light, and it gave us all inspiration for our communities back home.”
MARL is set up as a series of seminars conducted over the course of two years, and Class XIII has now finished its first year. Its seminar on state government took them to St. Paul where they made contact with lawmakers and saw the process in motion. Upcoming in November, the class will spend a week in Washington, DC, further examining how federal government impacts our state. Next year, they will conclude their travels with a trip to Vietnam, to have a firsthand look at a locale that is at once a key trading partner, and a culture very different from our own.
“I am very excited for all of these experiences,” Alm said. “And as a member of Minnesota Corn Growers Association, I’m very grateful they awarded a scholarship to me that put MARL within reach.”
Applications for MARL Class XIV will be open January 1-March 31, 2026. More information can be found at marlprogram.org.
