Student Spotlight: Meet Kelli Ann
Kelli Ann Molter retired from the Air Force in 2021 as a colonel–the top two percent of military ranks–after a career built on leadership, administration and near-constant movement. Fourteen assignments, more relocations than she can easily count, and decades of putting her own interests on hold.
Now, she’s an intern at Winter Spring Farm in West Bend, Wisconsin, learning what day-to-day on an organic farm looks like.
Molter’s journey into organic farming started as a love for nature in her teenage years. She used her first paycheck to buy an encyclopedia on alternative medicine and herbal plants. While her interest sat mostly dormant through her military career, the obligations of the job didn’t leave much room for fruition.
After retiring, Molter trusted her ambitions, deciding to come back to Wisconsin and attend her “dream school.” UW-Madison’s Organic Certificate Program gave her a way to finally return to the interests she’d set aside for so long. Molter’s vision is to open her own holistic community center with its very own organic farm.
Molter’s mornings at Winter Spring usually start with harvesting. She’s had to learn an entirely new vocabulary in the process; “scape,” for instance, wasn’t a word she knew a few months ago. Once everything’s picked, it gets loaded into crates or wheelbarrows and hauled to the washing station. From there, the process gets specific fast. Produce gets trimmed and pruned before washing, which varies on the vegetable’s delicateness. Spinach, for example, goes through a bubbler. After washing comes drying, weighing, bagging, and crating, all in preparation for the farm’s CSA boxes, which Molter also helps assemble.
One thing that’s stuck with Molter is the level of care Winter Spring’s team brings to something as simple as handling produce. She describes the crew’s mindfulness as if they are caring for a baby. Values such as attention to detail remind Molter of her time in the military. Air Force standards show up in how she approaches work: integrity, service before self, and excellence in whatever the job. She’s noticed those same morals reflected at Winter Spring, particularly in the farm’s work-share program, where community members trade labor for produce.
For someone who finished one career leading from the top, there’s something notable about choosing to start over as the person learning the ropes. Molter seems entirely at ease with that trade, and grateful for the chance to be new at something again.