Life as a Double Agent: Part 4

         Wow! I cannot believe that this is the last week of my internship at Butler County Cooperative Extension services. I can legitimately say I am going to miss the agents and staff that work there; they have been nothing but great and welcoming to me. The first day of my internship I walked in only knowing a few people, but when I left on Thursday I will have made some wonderful friends and colleagues. I have learned many new hobbies such as canning, freezing, quilting and painting.
           My last week in the office were spent totally on making a quilt of my summer! My quilt has 12 blocks and each block has a different event that I attended. The first block is a canning and freezing block. The Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Agent had at least 5 lbs. of fresh blueberries delivered to the office. After lightly rinsing each bag of berries I dried and separated them. I separated them in to separate bowls for jam, freezing and a blueberry cream cheese pound cake. We started with the cake, then made the jam and then finished with freezing the rest of the berries. It was definitely a new experience that inspired me to set aside more time to cook and bake.

            The second block is for Aerospace camp. At Aerospace camp I rode in a helicopter, learned how make rockets and how to fly an airplane. That was the first time I had ever flown an airplane and it was definitely an experience! I felt so confident after flying that airplane all by myself. While in the plane I taxied down the runway, took off, flew around in the air, learned many flying techniques and got a little help when landing the plane. I never expected in the beginning of my internship that I would be flying an airplane, but I am so glad that I did!

            The third and twelfth blocks are about the Catfish Festival. The third block is for all the work I did on setting up the 4H and Family and Consumer Sciences exhibits at the festival. The twelfth block was for Catfish Festival Judging. I was one of the judges for the 4H items. We judged them all: blue ribbon means great, red ribbon means needs improvement, and white ribbon means need extreme improvement. We also gave purple ribbons: the champion and grand champion of the categories.

            The fourth and seventh blocks have to do with Western Kentucky 4H Camp at Dawson Springs, Kentucky. The fourth one is just 4H camp. The 2015 4H camp was the first time I had ever been to 4H camp before in my life, I never went as a camper, CIT, teen or adult until this year. It was quite an experience, but I really enjoyed it! The seventh block is for the abstract art class that I taught at camp. I taught the kids what abstract art was, why people do it and famous paintings and artists. We did tape painting, name art and paint drop painting. It was an absolute blast because I love art and I think the campers really enjoyed it!

            The fifth block is the 4H clover. It stands for the four H’s: Head, Heart, Hands and Health. This clover shows that I did work with 4H and really got to know the in’s and out’s of 4H.  I did one or two things with 4H as a child and I wish now that I had done more. The sixth and ninth blocks are also events that I did with 4H. These are Day Camp and Teen Conference. At Day Camp the campers did a numerous amount of crafts each of which were categories in the Catfish Festival or the Kentucky State Fair. Teen Conference took place in Lexington, Kentucky on the University of Kentucky campus. There were hundreds of teens taking different classes, learning new skills and leadership. These kids were all very well behaved and I enjoyed this conference very much.

            The eighth block is a Family and Consumer Sciences block. This block stands for all the things I learned while working with FCS. I learned how to can, freeze, bake, quilt, sew, and use alcohol ink. I really enjoyed FCS because this is the field that I want to go in to. I love helping others to learn new skills that can help them in their family, personal, and recreational life and nutrition and health. It has been a blast learning all these wonderful skills and I plan to continue using all these skills.

            The tenth block stands for all the leadership skills that I have made over this summer internship. I have learned how to take all my leadership roles to the next level and really excel in being responsible. The eleventh block stands for 4H Shooting Sports. I got to go shooting at the Butler Co. Conservation Club. I had never shot anything but a handgun and ended up shooting many different types of guns.  I look forward to getting to spend more time out there or at the range. 

           I am so thankful that the University of Kentucky gave me the opportunity to do this internship! I now know what profession that I want to go in to and what I want to do with my life and I would not be able to say that if it weren't for this internship!