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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