#4hintern

As I finish up my first week back at school, I can take a breath and look back on my summer and life as an intern.

I loved my internship with the UW-Extension 4-H Youth Development office in Iowa County, and finishing up with the fair last week definitely but the topper on my summer.

It was such a rewarding experience to see all of my hard work for the summer come together and watch all of the youth achieve their goals. Working with so many different kids through the summer made me so happy, and hearing parents telling me I did such a great job and that their kid enjoyed working with me was the greatest reward.

Working this internship has solidified my desire to work with junior members, but I'm not so sure 4-H Extension is the place for me. At least not at this point in my life. 

I met so many great people who work in Extension, and I noticed a trend. 4-H Extension Agents start their work in the beginning of their life, or at the end. Young 4-H Agents work until they start settling down in life, and when they start having kids they move on to other areas of extension, maybe returning when their kids are about to leave high school. 4-H demands so much volunteer time, which is rewarding but time needs to be spent at home as well.

I have been slacking in all departments of blogging. Goodness.

Although the week is not over, it has been quite full of activities, and I have missed another week, so I will try to cover that as well.

Last time I blogged I was getting ready for Project Learning Day II. Well that has come and gone and I would like to think it was a success! Although the presenter for my “Animal Science Adventure” forgot about us and backed out, it was still a fun, educational day. I was very thankful for my Animal Science minor as I dug up Skill-a-thon materials and had to entertain 16 youth for two hours. I was able to teach them about ruminant stomachs, whole grain feedstuffs, by-products, and different breeds of livestock. We concluded with a trivia game, which I found very interesting. In order to answer the question teams had to moo like a cow, have a showman and a “hog” in the ring, oink like a pig, and scratch a “heifers” belly with a stick. If people would have seen these kids acting as show animals they would have been impressed.

Last week I held the Iowa County 4-H Ambassador Banquet and welcomed 29 Ambassadors to the Iowa County team. It was a pleasure to work with these kids, and help them through the interview and application process. I cannot wait to work with these young adults as they promote Iowa County 4-H!

After the banquet I took a much needed day off. But I was back at it this Monday morning as I took a group of Livestock Judgers to the State Competition. They did AWESOME! Our Senior team is going on to judge at Nationals! We had 4 Seniors in the top ten individuals, and 3 Juniors in the top ten individuals. It was a pretty stellar day, and we walked away with some hardware.

Tuesday was spent taking State Fair exhibits to the Fairgrounds in Milwaukee with my co-worker Melissa.

Wednesday was spent with Iowa County kids experimenting and playing games at Science Day. I get a litte reminder every once in a while that I really don’t want to have little boys, and I am really glad that I didn’t choose to become a teacher.

This past week was full of Cloverbuds, Clothing Previews, and County Board Meet & Greets.

Working with 4-H Youth is such a rewarding task for me. I remember when I was young, and still think about the people who I looked up to working in many different projects. I feel honored that maybe I could be a mentor like that to some of these kids.

Just like the Foods Review I was very interested about all of the entries in the Clothing Preview. It's very cool to see all of the outfits that youth have created.

I started off the week at Upham Woods 4-H camp in Wisconsin dells with 96 youth from Iowa, Green, and Lafayette counties. We spent three days singing campfire songs, meeting new friends, and developing new skills. The camp is for 3rd-6th graders, and counselors are high school youth. I, along with two counselors, taught the campers "Outdoor Survival" and they really seemed to enjoy it. It was so much fun to spend three days "working" but camping with some really amazing kids.

Transitioning back to the office was a little hard after a few days outdoors, but when I returned I was right back to work as we had Iowa County Foods Review on Thursday night. When I was growing up my sisters and I had always heard about Foods Review and thought about participating, but we were always playing softball or getting chores done. I was pleasantly surprised by the 4-Hers talent last night at the Foods Review, and they made some awesome dishes! The exhibitors are judged on how well they represent food groups, portion size, and presentation of the meal. Younger youth prepare one item and present it with a utensil used in the process of making it. The class B group must prepare one item with a menu the item would be served with and place setting. Class C prepares three items and creates a whole place setting, and the Class D group sets up a card table and presents a "Dinner for Two". I was so impressed that I am encouraging my youngest sister to compete next year.