Learning the Ropes

From the moment that I stepped foot in the Christian County office I have felt at home. The Christian county office is huge! We have an agent in each department (including three 4-H agents) and then there is a lot of office staff too. Feeling like I belong from day one was an amazing start to my summer.

Thus far this summer I have been involved in numerous 4-H programs. Even though, I have done a lot of the traditional 4-H programs, such as cloverbuds, cooking club, Ag/livestock club, my supervisor does something that I think is super unique. She is an army brat, so she focuses a lot of her time on the kids in the army base near us, Fort Campbell. I have pretty much been on the military base every week of my internship since my first day. I have experienced their club there that is called “blue oaks” and they have a P.E. program for homeschool kids. The kids from there will be submitting projects into the fair and the group of kids we took to Teen Conference last week were from Ft. Campbell.  

Even though I have gotten the chance to do lot of different programs, a great deal of what I have done this summer is what I would say is the behind the scenes things in extension. I have been to more meetings than I can even count! My first three days of the summer were spent in meetings. I have even had the pleasure of experiencing a district staff meeting. That was pretty overwhelming, but it was pretty awesome to meet so many agents on my third day working. On top of going to lots of meeting I have been involved with a lot of marketing opportunities for 4-H. I have done the basic marketing with the Plate It Up recipes at the Farmers Market, but have also done so much more. Kendriana, my supervisor, has been asked to talk at different events such as Grandparents’ Day at the PADD office in Hopkinsville, and to make a booth at a USO event for military families in Fort Campbell. At events like these we have shared with our target audience the different events that were coming up in the county, such as 4-H camp and the day camps.

Also, I have been in the office a little more than what is normal for an agent. During that time I have been able to see some of the work that the office staff does and how they help the agents to prepare for events such as the county fair. With being in the office I have also learned, or tried to learn, how to do some of the reporting that is required. I haven’t gotten a chance to report in KERS, but I have reported travel time and then done leave requests.

This summer has been W.I.L.D. and it is only half over! We still have the Western Kentucky State Fair (that’s what our county fair is named) July 1-9. I also still have to conduct my intern project. Speaking of projects, mine will be a college prep class that I will be doing at the Boys and Girls Club in Hopkinsville. The kids will spend the time doing a board game, I have designed, that will cause them to realize that they still have a lot to learn and understand before graduating high school.

My summer thus far in extension has been a good one. I can’t wait to see what these last five weeks have in store!

~Kyaria Scott