I’m excited to share the 45th episode of This is Ag! featuring Chris Devers, CEO of Rancho Cielo, who is no stranger to transforming lives and communities. Rancho Cielo, a nonprofit in Salinas, California, provides at-risk youth with education, mentorship, and hands-on training in agriculture, culinary arts, automotive, and construction, giving them the tools to build practical skills and sustainable careers. Under Chris’s leadership, the school has launched groundbreaking initiatives, including the first Future Farmers of America chapter at a charter school, dual enrollment with Hartnell College, and innovative projects like mobile refrigeration units for local organic farmers. Chris’s approach puts students first, ensuring their foundational needs are met while connecting them to opportunities that empower them to thrive. Through stories of alumni like Ashley Soto, who went from a work crew member to running her own construction company, and Samuel, who became a hotel engineer and entrepreneur, Chris demonstrates how mentorship, opportunity, and community investment create lasting impact. This conversation highlights why investing in people with empathy, opportunity, and purpose isn’t just good for individuals but also strengthens entire communities.
I’m excited to share the 45th episode of This is Ag! featuring Chris Devers, CEO of Rancho Cielo, who is no stranger to transforming lives and communities. Rancho Cielo, a nonprofit in Salinas, California, provides at-risk youth with education, mentorship, and hands-on training in agriculture, culinary arts, automotive, and construction, giving them the tools to build practical skills and sustainable careers. Under Chris’s leadership, the school has launched groundbreaking initiatives, including the first Future Farmers of America chapter at a charter school, dual enrollment with Hartnell College, and innovative projects like mobile refrigeration units for local organic farmers. Chris’s approach puts students first, ensuring their foundational needs are met while connecting them to opportunities that empower them to thrive. Through stories of alumni like Ashley Soto, who went from a work crew member to running her own construction company, and Samuel, who became a hotel engineer and entrepreneur, Chris demonstrates how mentorship, opportunity, and community investment create lasting impact. This conversation highlights why investing in people with empathy, opportunity, and purpose isn’t just good for individuals but also strengthens entire communities.
Rancho Cielo: https://www.ranchocieloyc.org/
Kirti Mutatkar, President and CEO of UnitedAg.
Reach me at kmutatkar@unitedag.org, www.linkedin.com/in/kirtimutatkar
UnitedAg website - www.unitedag.org
UnitedAg Health and Wellness Centers - https://www.unitedag.org/health-benefits/united-agricultural-benefit-trust/health-centers/
Episode Contributors - Chris Devers, Kirti Mutatkar, Dave Visaya, Rhianna Macias
The episode is also sponsored by Brent Eastman Insurance Services Inc. - https://brenteastman.com
Blue Shield of California - https://www.blueshieldca.com
Elite Medical - https://www.elitecorpmed.com
Gallagher - https://www.ajg.com/
SAIN Medical https://sainmedical.com/
MDI Network - https://www.mdinetworx.com/about-us
Chris: [00:00:04] We have two people working here. One of them is a young lady named Michelle Mejia, who was my student in the eighth grade, where she came to me through the truancy abatement program. I ran with the district attorney's office for students who didn't go to school. There's a lot of reasons why people don't go to school, whose family had come from a background of agriculture and working in agriculture here locally, single mother home. So-fourth, long and short of it now is she's 33 years young, finishing her administrative credential at Santa Clara this year. She'll have her doctorate from San Jose State, finished next year, and an educational leadership and a master's degree. And as a bilingual educator. But what is the real point with all of that? You know, one is, you know, she has we've transitioned wealth the right way and she's demonstrating that in her life and sustaining herself, her mom lives with her. You know, and she's doing well under her house. Um, makes a good living, has good benefits, is growing. But more importantly, she's giving back with her connection to the students and people that were like her, which is part of why she was selected. There's another young man I won't, you know, go too far into. But Terry Poole and he was incarcerated with us and I was his teacher when he was incarcerated long term, uh, long in the short. Terry went forth around Seattle Seahawks and has a master's in education. And he's our college and career counselor and runs our after school program.
Chris: [00:01:34] And, you know, he's giving back. Another example is a young lady named Ashley Soto, who came off our work crew, which historically was for some of the rough kids involved with probation. And they get paid to work and take care of the ranch. Long on the short and this was ten years ago in the peak and the height of gang violence, and when Salinas was the most violent city in the United States for youth homicides per capita. When this all started, it's changed a lot. But Ashley is now the lead foreman for the Don Chapin Company, running all the concrete crews and has her own construction company on the side. Has become independently wealthy and is now employing other students of ours. And I can talk about another young man named Samuel, who's my handyman personally. And the reason being is he got a job as the engineer at the Plaza Hotel here, a five star hotel on the water in Monterrey. He's not only an engineer there. He's been there 12 years. He's the managing engineer. He hires other students of ours now to be engineers there. And he was employee of the year last year. He's been there 12 years, but he has a handyman business on the side, which there's a huge need. And he set it up as an LLC and he does a tremendous job there. My name is Chris Deavers and I'm the CEO of Rancho Cielo, and it's my humble opportunity to serve in this role, in this great organization and live in this community.
Kirti: [00:03:05] This is exciting. I am on the campus of Rancho Cielo. I am the CEO and President of United AG. This is so exciting to be here. And I've been as I'm researching and trying to figure out what you do. It has inspired me just to kind of get to know everything that you do. So to be in your position, I am at a little bit envious of that because you are impacting lives. You're making a difference in the youth and who's involved in this community and later will serve. Some of them will serve the ag industry. So why are you here? Why is Chris here? And who is Chris?
Chris: [00:03:46] Well, I'll just say that, you know, no reason to be envious because you're also impacting tons of lives with what you do. Healthcare is a really important thing. We started. Denise brought United Ag to us as our broker with Levitt, and it was important to me when I worked here, that we started by living our truth and leading by example, and that we paid our employees a living wage, that we gave them a good place to work and have a sense of belonging and purpose in their lives, but that they be able to support families or meet their life goals. And healthcare is a huge part of that. And making sure that people have access to that is critical to include our students and their families. So thank you for what you do and the fact that you're here, you know, to build this relationship, I think, also speaks to your investment into making the world a better place. I mean, in short, that's really what it's about for me. I came here, I grew up on a walnut farm in the Central Valley of California. So all of this sits really dear, near and dear to my heart. My father was a corporate executive for an insurance company working in agricultural insurance, where healthcare was always a part of that. As they looked at underwriting the entire firm. So I've always kind of paid attention to that. And growing up with people working in the agricultural industry, I had the opportunity to travel a lot in college and go to UC Santa Barbara.
Chris: [00:05:08] I ended up back here after working in South America, Bolivia, and I had the great opportunity to eventually fall into education, which I never thought that would happen. If you asked if I was going to be a teacher or get into education, that would have been Z on my list of A to Z. I was not a good student, so I had disciplinary issues in school growing up. But you know, thanks to my mom, really, she took a kid with ADHD that was pretty hyper and full of energy and really helped get that structure into my life. And I was raised on a farm, as I mentioned, and I played soccer, so I played sports. And then she had me involved in community aspects and we traveled and family was really important and coming together to eat. So my mom really made sure I think that things kind of went the way they needed to. When I came back here and I was always taught to serve and help make the community better in some way with our gifts. Um, that, that is, you know, part of, you know, why we're here and how we live our lives. So that was always important to me. Um, I didn't quite know what I was going to do. I still don't completely know what I'm going to do. But when I came back here from South America, I was doing alternative economic development, working with cocoa farmers in Bolivia.
Chris: [00:06:24] I learned a lot about alternative economic development, focused on eco tourism, but about people really at the core of it all. And then I got into education, and funny enough, I became a math teacher in a school in seaside called the Martin Luther King Middle School, and they had run the math teacher out of the class, which I, you know, I kind of wondered why. Eventually learned why. And, uh, what I also learned was that I was good at teaching math and I was good at math and that the students and I really connected a lot. And that really changed my life. Transformationally. Um, and so at that point, I became a teacher. And if you were to ask me all the things I do, my undergraduate training in the beginning of my life, I'm a trained economist. So I was taught to look at money and economics and things like that. But if you were to ask me now, I'm the CEO of this organization. I was the senior director of alternative editor for the county office of Ed before this running schools. But if you were as an administrator, but if you were to ask me like what I do and who I am, it's really a teacher and that human connection, and I enjoy learning from people as much as I'm able to help guide them and their interest, you know, which is what you know, we're trying to do here today at Rancho Cielo.
Kirti: [00:07:37] If you define yourself as a teacher more than anything else, I feel that's such a noble thing to do. Right? So for me, looking at Schneider Dag, I am looking and we are serving some of the member employees of the employers. Right. In the end, that's what we're doing. You are the one who's building that workforce for agriculture in a way, right? And to have an impact as a teacher and have an impact and inspiring this youth to do it, that must be every day must be really fulfilling.
Chris: [00:08:12] Yeah. I feel blessed to get paid to do what I do. Yeah. At one point I had a, you know, we won't get to actually I won't go down that path, but I feel blessed to get paid to do what I do. And I love my job. People ask how long I'll do this for and until I don't want to do this anymore, or until they won't have me any longer. But I think to have in our lives, and this is for all people and the students and each one of us. But to have a sense of belonging and a sense of purpose in your life is really important. And to do something and to have a sustaining career that is fulfilling to meet your life goals is really important. And no doubt this job has done that for me, and so I feel all the more to give back to it and to the community and the people that we serve. So for me, it's, it's a complete blessing. But you know, it's interesting, you and I had mentioned being a teacher and you brought that up again, I think to be a teacher, you know, we also have to be learners and lifelong learners and be really open to learning in different ways of doing things and people and cultures and new ways of evolving with today's times. But something I learned early as a Peace Corps volunteer, as much as we think we're going to come in and give and change the world and potentially save, at least early on, what I found is in doing so and in giving, you receive so much more, and that I probably have learned so much more than the students I ever taught the students.
Chris: [00:09:39] And I was a math teacher. And funny enough, what I didn't, you know, finish saying earlier on was I had cheated my way through math in high school. And it was funny that I chose a math based major in college, right? So I really had to pick up and learn it. Studying economics and finance at UC Santa Barbara. So that was an interesting journey to me. And then it was interesting that I would become a math teacher with quote unquote, some of the most challenging school students that didn't want to be in school, that had dropped out of school, that were expelled or kicked out of school. So all of the students who didn't want to be in school or think that they were able to learn that I would. And so I think that the universe, or however you want to call it, has a funny way of teaching us. Ultimately, I think the things that we need to know in life. And I feel like my entire life journey really led me to this role with this organization at this point in time. And so it's an honor to be connected to the staff that works here and carries out the mission every day and then does the work.
Chris: [00:10:42] So Rancho Cielo, in its essence, is a workforce development educational institution. We are a 500 and 1C3 private nonprofit. We partner with John Muir Charter School, who is our academic partner that administers the educational program at Rancho Cielo. And in essence, we came out of a response to gang violence in our community. And that's where we started. And that's where I started my career, was with students who were expelled and on probation or adjudicated in the juvenile justice system. And being in the Salinas Valley in Monterey County, the large majority of those students were our young Latino males. And so I was very intrigued by that from the very beginning and from an economic standpoint, and looking at the drug trade, gang violence, which turned into human trafficking, weapons trafficking, money laundering, things like that. But to see how young people in our community had been brought into that equation in our society, and to see that young people were, one, committing horrendous crimes, but also having tremendous crimes committed against them, really at the hand of adults guiding the situation. And so interestingly, Rancho Cielo from the beginning was an alternative to really gang violence and incarceration. And so our founder, Judge John Phillips, who was the presiding superior court judge at the time, helped establish this program 25 years ago with Chief Probation Officer Tanner. And this is a 100 acres that was owned by probation, previously, the Natividad Boys Ranch, where young people came from multiple counties here and lived here who were involved with the juvenile justice system.
Chris: [00:12:36] So that was the beginning of Rancho Cielo. We're two miles north of the city limits in Salinas and the Goblin Mountain range, made up of cattle ranches. Right. Looking at the Salinas Valley where agriculture is happening and there's a strawberry field right next to us. So all of that means something. And Judge Phillips, when he founded us, wanted this to be focused on education, which it is, and workforce development and the idea of work and how we spend our time, what we do with most of our time, how we make a living to meet our life's goals, and that people were participating legally and in a constructive manner that would benefit all of society. And starting with themselves is the real goal. But it was initially no student can be ordered here by anybody. The student has to choose to be here, and they have to choose the program they want to be in. And then the second big concept is that it's free to everybody. From an equity standpoint, and we're investing about 50,000 per student per year into each student. And the majority of that money is privately funded from businesses, foundations and individuals. That being said, we do have partnerships and receive federal and state funding. So no doubt local, state and federal government are partners on certain things, but not directing how everything goes.
Chris: [00:14:02] Really, the community is directing what is happening here. It's been interesting to see how it's evolved because now we have 214 students a day. We go to school from 8:30 to 2:45, and we have seven vocational programs. And it's evolved a lot from the beginning of the original school that I was the lead teacher at, interestingly, and then principal and senior director over 21 years ago, which is a community school for 14 to 18 year old youth, but it evolved into the culinary arts program. They run a restaurant on Friday evenings, open to the public, and rice has really become a national model for vocational training, period, but also in the culinary arts. We have a construction program focused on building homes, housing. Right now, we're building tiny homes on trailers that we build the trailers for as well. And our welding and fabrication program. And then we have a classic car restoration program. And we focus on restoring cars, selling them, but teaching all the skills in classic car restoration. Our big partner there is Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, and we're hoping to show two cars this year in the Concours. And then we have in our automotive program, we're training right now exclusively for the Ford Motor Company, and the students are in direct certifications that can be applied to any Ford service center in the country. But we work here with our local to start and there's no apprenticeship program or college needed, which is certainly a pathway to any and all of our students.
Chris: [00:15:40] Should they choose that? And then we have our Ag program, which I'll end with because this is, I think, largely focused on Ag. But that funny enough is I think one of our programs where we have the most potential for growth. Interestingly, with all the ag support, we have many ag partners on our board. And, you know, we're looking at many different types of and strands of ag and workforce development in agriculture because there are a lot. And so we're trying to define what that is. Interestingly, many of our students, 98%, 96% being Hispanic, many of our students are socioeconomically disadvantaged. The large majority, many come from or are descendants of people who have worked in the fields. So they have a really negative perception of agriculture, and they don't realize that there's sectors out there dealing with ag technology and ag business and finance and their leadership and management, you know, opportunities. So it's really our duty to, in my opinion, you know, to really start to try to expose them to some of the different aspects and opportunities in agriculture in particular. And the goal would be, you know, to keep people here locally and to satisfy these jobs in the Salinas Valley and north, of course, where they do the berries. But Ag, I would say, is our largest growth potential at this point.
Kirti: [00:17:14] So how do you get the students exposed to agriculture so they get to go and work and get the feel? Is that how that happens?
Chris: [00:17:22] Yeah, I don't know. We're discussing this now. We have an advisory committee made up of industry professionals. The program is aligned to Hartnell Community College. We've just hired an instructor for the program who is an ag science teacher who is credentialed in core academics and career technical education. He's also adjunct faculty at Hartnell Community College and their agricultural program, so that we can teach dual enrollment college courses in agriculture here. So we're exploring that right now. The program is aligned to Hartnell's Mechatronics Program and Csm's Mechatronics program. But we're also focused on drones in that program, and we're starting to look at other aspects of ag science and growing. So that teacher has started to expose students to our gardening program and growing organic vegetables that we use in our lunches every day and our restaurant for Friday night dinners. But he's also started to get more involved with our horse program in partnership with Hope Horses Kids, and this year some of the students will be raising animals to show at the fair. He was able to establish our program as the first Future Farmers of America chapter for a charter school in the United States.
Kirti: [00:18:45] That's awesome.
Chris: [00:18:45] So that just happened. So we're anticipating a lot of things will develop and happen with Ag. We just put a gentleman or we didn't put him. He selected and they wanted to participate. Taylor Farms has a representative on our board. His name is Mark Bowerman, and he's the president of the Food Service Division for Taylor and in partnership with Mike Costa from Costa and Sons on our board. And Dave Johnson, owner and founder of Pacific International Marketing, really hoping that our our board members and those industry partners will help us move the needle forward in that area. So Mark will be working with the instructor.
Kirti: [00:19:29] Placing some of those students in there as. Hiring them. Is that what that would be or creating a program around that?
Chris: [00:19:37] Yeah, yeah. You know, so I talked to Mark about this when he was coming on the board. And we talked about what that would look like. And what we have found is that it's really important that the students understand what they're learning and why and what it leads to. So really exposing them to new things in a positive way, we found is the starting point really critical. That includes taking them on field trips to visit places to see how things work. A processing plant.
Kirti: [00:20:05] Exposing them to what's out there?
Chris: [00:20:07] Yeah. To taking them to a field to see how things would happen to a processing plant, to a business office, to refrigeration units, to trucking lines, whatever it may be, to, you know, sales in grocery stores, to whatever aspect, but exposing them to those possibilities we found is the starting point. Guest speakers, you know, we would like to capitalize on bringing industry professionals, people they can relate to, to speak to them about what they've done, what they're doing, what the opportunities are. But then job shadowing opportunities, we're finding is really important. Internships, paid internships are very important because that also helps our students meet some of their basic needs, which many are challenged with. But then all of that to include graduation from our program, you know, potentially leads to further training, but everything eventually leads to a career and a job, right? So that's the end all be all. And the objective for Rancho Cielo, the objective on our strategic plan that we've been working on with the board is that 100% of Rancho Cielo graduates will sustain a fulfilling career five years after graduation. And so everything we do, you know, will fall in line with that. And so to your question, I think it's I think it's a lot of things over time. And then the last piece, you know, is really mentorship. Yeah. But to find an adult or somebody in their life that can mentor them and walk with them over time to just be there and then to help connect the dots and to seek the opportunities is really critical.
Chris: [00:21:48] And I was just chatting with somebody this morning, David Moncada, who is from Ag and involved with lots of different aspects of Ag. He's more focused on regenerative farming now, which is another thing we're looking at. But he's here this morning with Farmlink and our ag instructor and coordinator, who our young ag instructor is from the community, went to UC Davis, studied Ag and is back doing the work. So that's critical. And the instructor and everyone's here and they're designing a small refrigeration unit for the small organic farmers. For Alba here particularly, which is a different type of agriculture. But the farmers, the small farmers don't have the ability to pick their produce and put it into a refrigeration unit, and then to move that around to market into a restaurant. So like all of our programs, we're designing to build what's called a cool water refrigeration unit on a trailer, we'll build the trailer that's mobile, and then probably solar battery powered off grid with our solar program supported by our board chair, Pete Scudder from Scudder Solar and Roofing, but really bringing that to bear for that program and then having those students work on the project with the earn as you learn model and producing these to benefit somebody in the community. And we're focused on that.
Chris: [00:23:05] So that's all happening, you know, right now. And so the opportunity there with our students will be to not only see how you build these, but then to maybe consider one day starting a business around this, because there's going to be a huge market for it, you know? So one of the things we're finding is that it's important to teach our students, not just about English or to be literate in communication, but to be mathematically literate, to be technologically literate, but to also be financially literate and to start to understand the different aspects and opportunities that are out there. Because really the American way, you know, is entrepreneurship, innovation, building things, business ownership, small businesses, meeting site and the largest group of entrepreneurs right now, I learned through the L band at Stanford that Elizabeth took me to, who's sitting here with us now, is that the largest group of entrepreneurs emerging in the country are Latinos in the western United States, right. So how do we take something that's very small, like this project where they're in the design phase of it and they're discussing it and they're learning about it, and how do we get it to a point where the student is managing and overseeing the production of these things to scale efficiently and potentially running an employee owned business, right? Satisfying a huge market need. That would be the end all, be all goal for us.
Kirti: [00:24:35] That would be so awesome. That sounds like a great story. I wonder if I know you touched on a few industries you did not touch on healthcare, so maybe that's something to explore because I even feel the need at United Ag.
Chris: [00:24:51] Well, it's funny, you bring up healthcare and all of that, but the healthcare piece right now, our board chair, many of our industry partners and the community is really encouraging us to look at developing healthcare as the next pathway, right, that we develop. A gentleman named Clement Miller, who is the chief operating officer for Salinas Valley Health is on our board representing their CEO of the company, Doctor Radnor. And one of the things we're talking about is developing this healthcare pathway and looking at those jobs, and then to bring in our other local partners on this, but not just looking at nursing seems to be one of the big focal points. And we have those pathways here with some of our community colleges and Montage Health, Natividad Hospital and then Salinas Valley Health.
Kirti: [00:25:43] Because I don't know if you know, but we have clinics in Salinas. We have one clinic in Salinas and we're looking to expand in different regions. Salinas has one across California. We have different health clinics. So if you're looking to shadow someone, our physician's assistant in the clinic in Salinas is awesome. So it's like just to see what a physician's assistant does on a day to day basis and how to run a clinic, right? If you ever need to partner with that, would love to take that further.
Chris: [00:26:17] That's the most important type of partnership we can have. We would consider that to be an industry partner, right? And to be able to practice, you know, by experience, as I mentioned earlier, starting with even a field trip there. But I think that would be great.
Kirti: [00:26:30] You know, what will be different about why that would make an impact from a United Ag standpoint? Because when we are looking at our member services team or our client services outward facing people to come into United Ag, the first question our VP of HR, Chana Hauben, asked them, do you understand what this is, right? The ag industry, if an employee comes in and says, you know what, I do get it because I was that kid on the other side helping my parents navigate the US healthcare system and the insurance industry. I was that kid when I was five years old, seven years old, ten years old. Taking those calls, figuring out what copays and deductibles and stuff like that, helping my parents who did not understand the culture, the language, and they start actually start crying. And then they say when a call comes in to United Ag, it's not an employee and member calling in. It could be my dad, it could be my uncle, it could be my mom. And they get teary about that. When Chana hears that, she says hired on the spot, because that cultural alignment of who you're serving and understanding somebody on the other side, and when you pick up the phone and you think, oh my God, that's my dad, right? And I'm going to help. When you help a dad, that's a different kind of help you provide. When you help somebody, you think it's a work. You provide different kind of service, right? So the students here actually with the background that they've had, and as you mentioned, 90% of them are from their parents and stuff have that ag background. That would be a perfect partnership for United Ag, because we look for people who understand this, who understand that it's a family member you're helping.
Chris: [00:28:16] Well, it sounds to me like you're maybe going to be on the healthcare pathway committee, the advisory committee.
Kirti: [00:28:21] I would love.
Chris: [00:28:22] To join the design, to design the whole thing and do everything and do everything we just talked about. I think that I love that human. I mean, it comes back to how you and I started this, but that human connection, and I think you're doing that in healthcare because every person here needs to have access to quality health care for quality and length of life. We all know this. Every person wants their children to have good healthcare once their parents have good healthcare. You know those close to them and their friends to have good healthcare. It's an instrumental piece of our society and of a living and of existing, you know, quality life that hopefully goes on for as long as possible. It's like housing, you know, nothing happens if you don't have a house. You know, the next thing would be nothing happens if you really don't have access to some type of health care. Good health care. You know, an education, to be honest with you. And I've always focused my entire life on that. And my eyes is in regards to survival is maybe down the way a little bit. You know, housing and healthcare could be number one and two, you know, and I consider nutrition and eating and food security, which is tied to, you know, the stuff we're talking about in healthcare, certainly. And you make your food in a house right there all kind of tied together is right there. But I spent my career really focused on education and workforce development, but I realized that and then I focused on getting them, you know, cars and transportation and all of that to get to work in school.
Chris: [00:29:51] Because in America, if you don't have that, it's hard. But what I realized was if people don't have healthcare, which is why in our equity committee, we're focused on direct medical services and we're focused on healthcare right now. So that's directly with our students. In terms of direct student services, we're focused on this in addition to the healthcare pathway. It's a very important thing to us. It's why we make 200 lunches a day. We're talking about getting mobile healthcare clinics in place. We're talking about trying to get every student connected to a primary care physician to have that. Because if you don't have that healthcare piece, you know you're not taking care of yourself. You can't live a high quality and high functioning life over hopefully as long of a period of time as possible. And then the next is I talked about the housing. I started to realize, and I'm a slow learner, it took me 20 some odd years to realize this, that if a person doesn't have a house, they can't sleep and rejuvenate, which is critical to everything to eat, you know, to rejuvenate, nourish yourself, to have family and community, which is critically to be safe, have your own thoughts to separate from, you know, things to some degree, but to bring what's really important to you. You know, together to rejuvenate yourself, to keep going on. So I realized if people don't have these basic things, how do we expect people to, one, survive? You know, let alone thrive. So I appreciate everything that is true.
Kirti: [00:31:16] I feel like at United Ag, I, I always think the reason I'm passionate about what I do and what I get up and I it's this is, this is what makes life fulfilling is it's kind of an experiment. I think that we are running to see if you bring back the thing in healthcare has been that for a long time, we are treated as a number. And when you think of a health insurance company and health plan, the role is to just push that cost somewhere else, right? As long as I'm not paying for it, I'm okay. But I feel United Ag the reason it's why it's exciting is we are trying to figure out if you put the human at the center of everything, if let's say you and I get diagnosed with some issue. It's do I want to call a person and go through that whole automated system and figuring it out and all the things first, I'm diagnosed with cancer and I don't know what else to do. Right? How would you and I like to be treated if we have an issue going on, right? It starts with that. And then from an employer, this is an industry in ag that feeds the nation and feeds the world. How do you make it affordable for the employer to provide quality healthcare? Because that's important.
Kirti: [00:32:32] Then how do you create United Ag to be financially sustainable? That it keeps giving back and keeps giving back and keeps giving back? It's an experiment at three different levels that we run on a daily basis, and we've been super successful and great, but it starts off with that. You know, the starting point is take care of the health. Take care. Let's bring let's really focus on that so we don't have all these issues coming up later. We start with that, right? Instead of pushing it off and saying, oh, I don't need to pay for it, like, let me just push this away. Why don't we take all of us, take the time and spend the time to go to the core and say, let's fix it there. And that's the reason I when you and I were on the call the other day, I felt an instant alignment because you're doing exactly the same with the students, right? We have to start off with, let's start with the core. Let's build that like, you know, the core and the basics, right? And then everything after that happens, naturally happens. That's what from an education, that's what it does creates that framework. And that's what I think we are doing from Unidac.
Chris: [00:33:43] Well, it's interesting you bring it up. You know, we very much view us as a especially post-pandemic human organization serving humans. Right? It's very human centric. We're here with our natural Environment. And so we obviously look at that. But this is a very human centric organization, people serving people and all working together to include the board, the staff, the students, their families, community partners, donors, right. It's all connected around people. And it's interesting because many of the jobs and industries we're training in, AI will not replace. So that I think, is also of interest. Post pandemic, we made a big point to be in person and to be present. And if you were to ask the real magic of Rancho Cielo, what is it about? It's about creating a safe place that people can come to and be accepted for who they are and embraced, right? And to succeed based on merit, but that you have a sense of belonging, which I think all people seek. And then that sense of purpose in your life, right? And that we can help them unlock the way that they have that fulfilling career.
Kirti: [00:34:53] And I want to thank you for doing what you do because this is beyond awesome. This is what you're doing in your role through Rancho Cielo is so much needed. And thank you. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for being who you are.
Chris: [00:35:08] It's a lot of other I mean, a lot of people. Yeah, I'm sure everybody but leadership team and staff and board and community partners. Everybody at Rancho Cielo supports me to do this. But it's honestly a tribute to just so many people. You know, people like you, including our partners, Denise. But everybody, you know, really making everybody on board and this is awesome.
Chris: [00:35:28] The whole community. I think it's what makes it successful. And like I said, I'm honored to to be here and to hopefully provide some good guidance to it.
Kirti: [00:35:37] Thank you so much.
Chris: [00:35:38] Yeah. Thank you.