Hello all! My name is Alissa Ferguson, a rising Senior Early Childhood Education and Family Studies student all the way from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina. I am originally from New Haven, Connecticut and would say that I am a pretty big city girl...probably the definition of it. This summer I have the opportunity to conduct my internship as a 4-H and Youth Development Agent with the Franklin County Extension Office. With that being said this post (and the many more posts to come) will mostly be about my overall experience. Not only how amazing my internship is and the amazing things we will be doing this summer with children and young adults, but also how I become acquainted with everything Kentucky, horses, outdoors, bugs, and becoming comfortable outside of my comfort zone.
I started my internship on Monday May 18th and it was more than I expected my first day to be. I arrived to the office to friendly welcomes by everyone, including the other two interns, Beth and Ben, that had already arrived, and then we were off to Kroger to prepare for our barbecue culminating activity with the high school portion of The Academy in a few hours. We had a short agent meeting upon arrival back to the office to meet everyone and share our schedules for the week. Once we were done, we quickly starting preparing for The Academy's arrival. On the menu for that day, the children got to grill their own hot dogs, chicken, and vegetable kabobs loaded with peppers, zucchini, and onions. For dessert, my supervisor, Whitney, found recipes on Pinterest such as grilled peaches rolled in cinnamon and sugar (we used splenda) and grilled pineapples which were a hit! The children really enjoyed grilling their own food and learned about cooking temperatures and preparation for each item. At the end of the day Whitney and the other 4-H agent, Leslie, took Beth, the other 4-H intern, and I into a meeting room to discuss our schedule for the entire summer. Honestly, I was a little overwhelmed about all the things we had planned and were responsible for, but I left the meeting more excited than nervous.
On Wednesday, I accompanied Leslie and Beth to Collins Lane Elementary where we facilitated a lesson/activity called Lemonade Wars with four different groups of 5th graders. The children were broken into groups to create their own lemonade business. We talked about some of the components it takes to make a business, then the children were responsible for creating a name, billboard or flyer, commercial, price, and recipe for their lemonade business. They then got to make their product with lemonade koolaid packets and splenda that they had to "purchase", which made them do a little math to compute how much profit they would make per cup. Once each team made their lemonade according to their recipes, they had to go to the front of the class and perform their commercial while showing their billboard/flyer design. During the performance, two of us tasted their lemonade concoction and declare a winner. The children then got to drink their own lemonade and the lemonade made by their "business competitors".
With the long weekend ahead, we stayed in the office on Friday. Beth and I spent the day planning for our craft day, Longest Day of Play, and meal planning for our craft day and camp. We finished our work really early, so we spent the rest of our time getting to know one another and the rest of the agents in the office.
After my first week interning with the Franklin County Office and really learning more about what 4-H is all about, I cannot WAIT for what the summer has in store.
-Alissa Ferguson
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