Oldham County 4H Intern

Program funded by the USDA and Land-Grant Universities. (University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University)

Provides Community Based Learning Provides resources to communities Conduct educational programs for

children, adults and senior citizens There is an Cooperative Extension office

in every county in Kentucky.

Cooperative Extension is the educational resource for all Kentuckians that serves as a catalyst to build better communities and to improve the quality of life.

Their mission overall is to “advance agriculture, the environment, human health and well-being, and communities

Cooperative Extension serves as the link between the counties in the Commonwealth and their surrounding land grant universities.

They help to better the lives of others through an educational process focused on wants and needs.

Cooperative Extension is broken into three different components. 1) 4H and Human Development 2) Family Consumer Science 3)Agriculture/Horticulture

I was chosen to be the 4H and Human Development intern.

Youth Development Organization4H is the largest Youth Development

Organization. There are more than 6 million 4Hers across the Nation.

Their Mission is to empower children to reach toward success and to promote positive change.

Project Days For a week the children came to the office and

created Bird Houses, Basket Weaving, Sewed purses, Gumball machines

Kids Cooking Camp Everyday for a week children made a different dish

featured from a different country around the world. Summer Camp @ Lake Cumberland

Week long summer camp. We stayed in cabins and took part in activities such as obstacle courses, zip lining, swimming, hiking, arts and crafts, and lots of camp fires.

“Special Project” –Fashion Revue Children sew their own outfits, and model them

while being judges. Whomever wins first and second place get to enter their pieces in the State Fair

Budget Meetings I was able to sit in on plenty meetings

regarding funding and how Cooperative Extension works as a business.

Judging @ The Statewide Horse Show Able to Judge my first ever horse show, to

see who would be able to show at State Fair.

Event Judge for the County Fair Judged projects at the County Fair to

determine who moves on to the State Fair.

When I researched their Mission and Purpose, I felt as if working for something like Cooperative Extension has many of the same principals that CLD has taught me while being here. The classes that I’ve taken, and the Leadership Development principals that I’ve learned are things that I see incorporated through this service.

I didn’t really chose Cooperative Extension. It kind of chose me because of how it fits so well with my helping personality and career goals.

4H uses Facebook a lot for their advertising and upcoming events. If you look up the Oldham County Facebook

page, parents are able to see the calendar of upcoming events.

They are also able to view pictures of what their children are doing during their time in 4H.

It would be helpful if 4H used other forms of media.

New media forms such as Twitter could be helpful in reaching out and recruiting older members.

For the most part parents whom have children in 4H are very involved. Most of the communication happens to the parent rather than directly to the child until they are older. Since ages range 6-18. Marketing 4H to younger age groups can be challenging.

I think Facebook does its job as it pertains to keeping parents updated involving the different activities that their children are involved in.

The fact that Facebook allows parents to actually see what their children are doing, may be somewhat fulfilling for parents as well, especially during camp when their children are away for almost a week.

Since there are a lot of older agents that work for 4H, they are not always “hip” to the latest technology trends.

The problem is not refusing to add a new media element, the problem is more due to lack of education surrounding new media.

With counties beginning to hire younger agents, and a lot of agents retiring, we may see more new media incorporated with 4H.

http://oldham.ca.uky.edu/