June 2-16 Johannah Hamilton 4-H

                When I returned from abroad, I was able to hit the ground running. The very first thing I did was attend a Golf Scramble in Prospect, KY which is a big fundraiser for the Jefferson County 4-H program. I learned that one big part of Jefferson County’s uniqueness is that we do not have an Extension Tax, so our money comes from fundraising and grants. Ashley and I were able to sell 60 raffle tickets which came out to be $600 and we were also able to sell a lot of, which I had never heard of prior to, skirts and mulligans. It was a really nice fund raiser and I was able to meet a lot of people through it. Later that week we went to Newburg Middle School to have a Reality store. I really enjoyed this program because I remember doing it when I was younger as well. The kids received an imaginary amount of money in their checking account and they were to go around to the different stations (Transportation, Housing, Health Care, Child Care, Education, Entertainment, Insurance) to see how far their money could stretch and what they would have to sacrifice in order to have kids or a nice car or house. I was stationed at the insurance booth and I ran into a lot of kids that were running out of money quick or either already broke by the time they got to me. I liked this a lot because a lot of kids, especially those too young to work yet, don’t understand budgeting or money management so I was glad we could do this with them.

                That weekend I was able to go to the 4-H Teen Conference at the one and only University of Kentucky. I was surprised at just how many teens were there and what a huge event it was. I was not involved in 4-H growing up so I was never aware of anything like Teen Conference. There were thousands of students there and hundreds of agents from all over Kentucky. While I was there, we would go to workshops located at different places around Lexington and then later in the evening eat dinner at Commons and go to Memorial Hall to either be entertained by the Kentucky 4-H Performing Arts Troupe or the group from Georgia and to see the candidates running to be the 2014-2015 State Officers of 4-H. Also there was a District Night Out at Malibu Jacks for Go-Kart Racing and mini golf for all the kids to go to. It was fun even for the adult interns and agents. Our workshops took us on a gallery hop, where we were able to go to art museums and do some clay molds. There was a lot of professional development and really good opportunities for the students to network and meet 4-H’ers from all over the state at the conference. I really enjoyed the teen conference and I thought it was nice that the teens were able to get that college atmosphere exposure by staying in the dorms, walking on campus and eating in Commons and the Student Center. I was also able to meet some agents and interns from other counties.

                At the end of the week after we left, I was able to attend my first 4-H Council Meeting. I was able to meet 4-H volunteers who all had different responsibilities in the organization. They went over their budget sheets and over other things that would be going on months from now. This meeting was able to give me a little more insight on the planning and how much help the volunteers bring to 4-H. During this meeting I gave a presentation on some of the things I learned and did while abroad.

                Over the weekend we were able to do a program called Wonder Girls. It was a diversion program that young at risk teens had to complete in order to avoid going to the youth detention center. At first, I thought it was going to be very difficult to interact with the girls and that they were going to have bad attitudes and not want to be there, but I can assure you I was definitely wrong. We started off with ice breakers to get the girls talking and everything went uphill from there. The girls were all very sweet and they were very responsive and interactive with us. They all participated in the activities that Ashley and I had for them with a smile on their face. One of the girls would be going off to college in the fall, and I talked to her a lot about what to expect and how to prepare for higher education. We provided healthy snacks and water for the girls also. 
     I loved the program because I felt like the girls were really enjoying themselves and they actually listened and respected what advice we gave them. The girls, without them even knowing, taught me a lot about making assumptions and judging a book by its cover. We had the girls write us a letter at the end of the program and all of them were truly grateful for everything we had done and had a really positive attitude from start to finish. I’m still loving every aspect of this internship!