Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Adapting to this Crazy Life


Before I started this internship, I had planned on writing a blog every couple of weeks but when they told us that we would hit the ground running at orientation, they were not kidding around at all. This week marks the halfway point of my internship and that amazes me. Since it feels like I have been going non-stop since my first day as the Meade County 4-H intern, I am going to try my best to highlight some of the main activities that I have done each week.

Week 1:
I assisted my supervisor, Deana, with a Rocketry lesson at Heartland Elementary School for the Second Grade. The kids made Pop-bottle rockets and were able to launch them. We also launched a black powder rocket for them, which I thought was pretty cool. During my first week, we also hosted the Teen Leadership Academy (TLA) Graduation. This was my first dose of planning an event with 4-H. The Meade County TLA kids presented their project but completed it the first week of June. Their project was to go to the local nursing home and spend a few hours playing games, coloring, and visiting with the residents. This week I also attended a PR event with the ANR Agent to cook hamburgers with the Cattlemen’s Association at a local elementary school for the last day of school.



Week 2:
I attended a training to learn how to edit the new website. We also had our last meeting for the 4-H Cooking School until fall. This was my first Cooking School class that I attended and I absolutely loved how all of the participants had learned how to properly use kitchen utensils and were willing to try the new recipes that they made themselves each month. They were even encouraged to make meals at home for their family. I also learned how to create partnerships with different community groups to be able to get the community more involved in 4-H. We began a partnership with the Meade Activity Center (MAC) and set up several days for us to come to their summer program at a local elementary school and conduct various day camps in addition to inviting them to bring their kids to our day camps that we already have scheduled at the extension office. We also made arrangements for Deana to have a 4-H club at several elementary schools through their after school program.

Week 3:
This week I was able to venture outside of 4-H and learn about the other program areas in the extension office. I went with the ANR Agent a couple days and helped him seed a pasture field on their demonstration farm and learned how to AI breed cows. I also went with the FCS Agent and EFNEP Assistant one day to assist them with a program they call “5 Thursdays in June” in one of the smaller communities in Meade County. We talked to them about the importance of nutrition and a balanced diet and discussed what other nutrition related topics they would like to discuss at the other meetings and what recipes they would like to try.



Week 4:
This week was the week before 4-H Camp, so I was about knee deep in making final preparations before we left for camp most of the week. I prepared stuff for the class that I was in charge of teaching at camp, which was Nature class, picked up camp T-shirts, made schedule programs for all camp participants, and picked up snacks for the campers. In the midst of all of this, we had our Science, Engineering, and Technology (SET) Day Camp. The kids made a rocket out of various fruits and pretzel sticks, and one out of straws and labels. They even got to make their own black powder rocket and launch it at the end of the day.






Week 5:
4-H CAMP!! I had an amazing time at 4-H camp. Yes, it was extremely hot, and it rained every night around dinner time and I was completely and utterly exhausted at the end of every day, but I loved every minute of it. All of the people at camp were wonderful and I could not have asked for a better group of people to spend a hot and tiring week with. It did take me a few days to get out of camp leader mode, especially when doing activities at home with my family. On Sunday after camp, my sisters and I were playing a game and I started explaining the game and telling them what to do like they did not know how to play and one of my sisters looked at me and said “You’re still in camp counselor mode. You should probably come down out of that since you are home”. I thought this was funny because I did not even notice I was doing it because I had enjoyed acting as an adult leader so much at camp.




This brings me to this week of my internship. When I first started my internship, I chose a project that was Agronomy based because Meade County has a lot of row crop farmland but not many 4-H programs to support that segment of agriculture. However, I recently had to switch my project from being Agronomy based to being Animal Science based, when I realized not many people would sign up for my first project. It was difficult to completely change my project halfway through the summer but I learned a lot from it because I tried to do something completely different and it did not work, but I learned that it takes time for people to try something new when they are used to only doing certain types of things. I learned and I adapted to the situation, so in my next blog, I will give more details about my project and a progress update on it. Until then, I am looking forward to hearing about your summer on Friday. I am also looking forward to the rest of my busy summer and learning more about the Meade County 4-H programs, as well as the other extension programs. 

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