The Frank Church Institute

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[Text on screen] Boise State University School of Public Service: A conversation with Fred Cornforth

[Text on screen] My model United Nations experiences as a student

Fred Cornforth: I went to a very small high school I’m a native Idahoan but I went to a small high school in Bozeman Montana in the Gallatin valley and was a member of FFA and you know worked on the farm that the school had moved pipe you know and of course I have roots in eastern Idaho as well where removed a lot of pipe and grew a lot of potatoes on the farm but it’s amazing having lived in canyon county how connected business is internationally from Idaho uh we literally send our products that we make here in Idaho all over the world and so it’s just not it’s not easy to call us the great state of Idaho or the great world of Idaho we are so interconnected with the world today in so many ways from ag to technology we are we are part of the world and it’s amazing the people in our state how many connections they have internationally and so model united nations got me thinking internationally at a very young age and it’s just it’s had a big impact on the way I see the world today.

[Text on screen] How Model United Nations changed the way I looked at the world

Fred: You know I think seeing how other countries relate to each other seeing how they can help each other and be partners and not enemies you know those were big things seeing how Idaho sharing you know so many borders state borders but also you know on northern border with our neighbor to the north Canada uh there’s just all kinds of ways when you when you have to put yourself in the place of somebody else and if you just stripped away all language and all borders and you just looked at you know I’m a business owner I’m trying to deliver a product to my customer I want my customer to be happy you know how do I do that you know what is it that they need what is it that they want that that makes me think about things differently well when you add into it the filters that you have to process that information through being a different country or in some cases even on a different continent model united nations puts you in a position where as an American you can put yourself I remember the very first country that I represented modern united nations it was Sudan and we don’t do a lot of business with Sudan but I had never mentally been to Egypt before and so here I was in a poor country you know thinking about what would it be like to be on the continent of Africa and in the second country that I got when I was a senior I was actually in charge of the soviet union which was totally a an abstract experience from a guy who which literally came from moving pipe from you know in a wheat field uh you know it was one of those experiences where I had to think differently and so I really think that that can have a big impact on how we see business how we see neighbors how we view the news um so yeah being a good neighbor being a good business person just being a good member of the planet all those things factor into and help the model unit the model united nations program helps us see things differently.

[Text on screen] Why there is a need for a Model United Nations

Fred: I think as high school students it’s one of the times where you’re the most open um you know there’s a 10-year period in our lives where we really start to explore the space this I think being in high school to think of places other than yourself and to think about other people’s needs other than your own uh really puts you in a in a place that I think can cause growth spurts and how we see things and so the fact that we hadn’t had a program in Idaho here in a while and where it really impacted me even though it was several years ago I just I really began to think this could be something that Idaho could really benefit from you know whether it’s in Ammon or Rigby or wherever part of Idaho we happen to be uh this you know and I’m I live in Boise and I’ve lived in the treasure valley here for 25 30 years uh this I just I’m excited about the opportunity of having students from all around our state big and small cities participating in experience like this because I think who knows that maybe there’s an eight-year-old girl from Rigby Idaho right now that will eventually be part of model united nations and she’ll broker a peace deal in the middle east or maybe there’s a boy in Rockland power county Idaho and Eastern Idaho that will be the guy that comes up with some new seed that South American needs that can help uh you know create a whole economic base for Idaho but also you know help feed the people in in South America you just never know where that genius might reside in mall united nations could be the catalyst to make that happen.

[Text on screen] Why MUN is especially valuable to students from rural areas

Fred: Well you know I think there there’s a ton of advantages to growing up in rural Idaho and you know there’s it’s you know you’re talking about safe communities you’re talking about communities where everybody knows everybody uh you know it’s but I think where it started for me uh was I started stamp collecting when I was in junior high and so they have stamps from all these different countries that really you know began to show me that the world was bigger than just the county or the little town that we happened to live in at the time so again opening up the world to young minds is super important you know our universities the professors whether the it’s the extension programs the university of Idaho or whether it’s through you know Boise state’s reach throughout the state uh this there are people that grew up in rural Idaho that have gone off have received excellent educations in different places sometimes at Boise state sometimes in the you know the top universities in the world and they’ve come back and they find themselves on faculty and staff here and their experiences their life experiences the experiences that they actually lived they didn’t read about it in a book but they actually lived it I mean those can give us the more staff and faculty that we have that have had those kinds of experiences the more economic advantages that we have in rural areas you know whether it’s you’re a farmer a rancher you’re an inventor maybe you come up with a way to store potatoes and get another month’s worth of you know where you’re able to protect the nutrients in in the crops that we have that we produce here in i hope there’s all kinds of ways that the experiences that people have left the state of Idaho have come back and have dedicated their lives to teaching students in our state and sharing those experiences i mean remarkable things can happen it can happen even just in a one hallway conversation it doesn’t even need to be in a regular class or a you know it could be an internship there’s so many ways that it could spark uh you know problem solving in a student who could make a big economic impact in our state make their community safer or better places to live there’s just so many things that could our state’s benefited by the more cross-pollination we have with other states with other countries um I really think that Boise state can be a catalyst again for helping that cross-pollination take place.

[Text on screen] Why it was important to honor Bob and Kathy Kustra with this gift.

Fred: Well I think Dr. Kustra has you know did accomplished a number of things at Boise state that um you know just um both he and his wife were very prominent leaders and continued to have an influence in our community here even though they’re living I think part of the time in Arizona but you know they’re it’s amazing what an administrator can do when they’re truly vested and driven by you know being a true public servant and I think that that caught my eye it takes a lot to catch my attention but his leadership you know the way he led while he was president of the university um really impressed me and we’re very fortunate to have Dr. Tromp now as well because you know being a rural Wyoming uh woman herself and you see what she’s been able to accomplish in her life I mean it’s just really uh Boise state is such a unique crossroads that we have and to have Dr. Kustra and Dr. Tromp both uh we’re very fortunate these are two people dedicated to lifelong learning um and just super excited that uh it can bear uh their last name.

[Text on screen] What it means to further the legacy of Frank Church.

Senator Church was spoken of in my mom’s family, their fifth generation Boiseans a good Irish Catholic family, and uh but Frank Church was spoken of with such reverence uh that if you if you ever used his name in vain you could end up having to stand in the corner right so it was one of those things where he really was a gifted orator but again it came from a deep commitment of public service uh to Idahoans and uh was Frank Church and the influence that a good old Boise boy made uh in the world the influences that he had even on international platforms uh it’s just it’s an honor for me to be a trustee now uh with the frank church institute uh you know so many things that he did you know hopefully we can inculcate not only ourselves that sense of service the commitment to good academics the good understanding of the law both here in international law how to be a good neighbor all those things were things that church exemplified and those are things we hope we can emulate in our own lives.