Friday, May 17, 2013

Blog one: intros, promos, outdoors, and radio fame!


Hello blog readers!


 Day one of my internship


I started my Extension internship at the Grant County Extension Office on May 6th and I have been very busy since! I am the 4-H intern this summer and will be working primarily with Lamar Fowler.  I am not from Grant County, so I am not as familiar with the layout of the county.  On the first day of work, Lamar and I traveled around the county; he introduced me to some people in the county, showed me the different schools and some local businesses in the county.  The first day was a lot of introductions, but Lamar and I had a fun day going around the county.  I also was introduced to the office staff; Grant County’s office staff is very fun to work with! They enjoy the work that they do and are very fun to be around.  The office has been very welcoming to me.. maybe too welcoming. 

 One of the agents decided to play a little prank on me!
               
                During my first week, Lamar, Chelsea Young (Grant County 4-H Program Assistant), and I taught a Dance Fit program with the Kindergartners of Dry Ridge Elementary School.  The Dance Fit program is designed to get kids moving and teaching the about 60 Minutes of Play a Day.  The kids really enjoyed this program and so did we! 


                As someone who wants to be a 4-H agent, Lamar has been very good with giving me little tid-bids of information that would be useful to a new agent.  Lamar showed and explained to me the volunteer packets and information that is collected from all extension volunteers.  Together, Lamar and I went through all the volunteer files to make sure they were updated.  Next, we sent out letters to anyone who was missing paper work.  I also began working on my “project” for this summer.  I decided to do a cooking class and have started gathering materials and sending out information about the class.

                During my second week as an intern, I have not spent much time in the office.  Lamar and I started out the week working with fifth graders at Grant County’s outdoor classroom.  This is located behind the extension office. We spend around four hours outside with fifth grades.  We were teaching them about nature and how pioneers would have survived in this area.  
  
This is where we spend the morning!
                
                I had my very first 12 hour work day (an an intern).  One day this week, we had a Teen Council meeting in the evening so I spend my whole day at the office.  I know there will be more 12 hours days to come (especially during fair week), so this was good preparation.  Lamar and I also visited the 8th graders at Dry Ridge Middle School; at the middle school, we planted flowers and mulched the flower bed outside their classroom.  These kids were very enthusiastic about doing this project! 
               After planting flowers, in the afternoon, I also did an experiment to see how many rubber bands it takes to cut a watermelon in half.  This is going to be a "guess how many rubber bands" split the pot fundraiser and I decided to be the guinea pig. 

                This week I also experienced my first District Three Staff meeting.  Wednesday, I traveled to Carroll County to attend this meeting. As someone who aspires to be an agent, this was a good experience for me to meet other agents from around the district.  I also really enjoyed seeing some of the agents that I did know! 
This is my "twin" Krista, the 4-H Agent in Boone County

                I also became a radio star this week.  Lamar and I were invited to promote Grant County 4-H on 106.7 Classic Country Radio.  This was such a cool experience because I have listened to this radio station since I can remember.  On this show, we promoted all the summer programs that the Grant County 4-H Program is hosting this summer.  


                I ended this week by teaching a nutrition class with another worker in the office at Field Day at Sherman Elementary School.  We played a game to get kids thinking about the differences in healthy and non healthy food.  This was a great way to end the week. 
                So far, my summer as a mini 4-H agent has been really exciting.  Unfortunately, it has rained almost every day that I’ve been here, but hopefully this weather will hold off until July when we will really need it!  I am sad that this will be my last day for a while.  For the next three weeks, I will be on an education abroad trip in Prague, Czech Republic.  I will miss being in the office, but I know there will be a lot of exciting stuff when I return!

Hope everyone who read this is having a great summer!
Blessings, 
Kelsey Knight 

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