Extension
It Starts With Us
Author: Kenneth Jones
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
An Extension faculty/specialist partnered with a faculty member in Plant Pathology on a grant to provide high school students with mentoring experiences that would expose them to potential careers in agriculture. After minimized COVID restrictions, one African American high school student came to work in the CAFE lab of the plant pathologist to complete an independent study project related to the work. The Extension specialist served as the supervisor and mentor to the student, while the other f
Author: Sarah Redmon
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
JAG is becoming a popular class in the school systems today. JAG, which stands for Jobs for American Graduates provides life skills and help them overcome barriers while preparing them for the work force, secondary education, or the military. The 4-H Agent was asked to come and provide educational lessons for the JAG student at Great Crossing High School. One of the educational lessons was public speaking, public speaking is the #1 fear for Americans. The 4-H Agent spent one day for three weeks
Author: Dana Anderson
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
Teaching youth entrepreneurial skills is not taught in the traditional school classroom today. To equip our youth, we offered them the opportunity to sell their 4-H market livestock and country hams at Mercer County Investment in Youth Sale. The program's objectives are to learn how to engage in a contract and understand that they had requirements to participate in the sale. An integral part of the program is youth are creating a networking system. The participants are required to learn mark
Author: Deana Reed
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
7th grade students use an account balance sheet to track their expenses/deposits. This requires math skills (and sometimes a calculator).Recent years of tough economic times have increased awareness of the need for financial literacy; however, Americans still have a long way to go toward making improvements. In 2014, the Jump$tart Coalition compiled a series of statistics that state that even though youth intend to work and save dollars, more students have increased 36% from the previous y
Author: Lena Mallory
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
The 4-H Thriving Model is the science-grounded in practice that describes the “magic” of 4-H. This model takes the science to explain the growth/thriving process of youth because of their 4-H involvement. Moving from the Developmental Context (4-H Programs) to Youth Thriving (Social, Emotional and Cognitive Learning) to Development Outcomes (Positive Youth Development) to Long-Term Outcomes. The 4-H Thriving Model is best envisioned thro
Author: Joe Maynard
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
This year the Martin County Extension Service participated in Heritage Days at each elementary school. Volunteers from the Martin County Beekeepers Association also participated in each of the Heritage Days by offering lessons in beekeeping and the thrill of the students getting to see a live hive of honeybees through the use of our observation hive. Introducing beekeeping to students is vital because it has a long history of being one of the most important contributors to the production o
Author: Anna Denny
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
On Thursdays in March, the Ben Johnson Elementary School in Breckinridge County have been doing Wildcat Skills Camps. On March 9th, twenty five students in the fourth and fifth grade learned about finances through the Dollars and Sense 4-H program. They learned about banking, specifically how a checking account works, wrote checks, made deposits, made debit purchases, balanced a checkbook, and completed the Dollars and Sense Simulation. The instructor, DJ Riggs, got transaction registers from Fi
Author: Kelsey Chadwick
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
Juntos 4-H is a program that supports Hispanic youth and their families. With Mayfield, Kentucky having over 10% Latino population, this program has provided outreach to an important underserved demographic in our community. Juntos 4-H consists of 35 Hispanic high schoolers who come together monthly to discuss their goals for the future. At a recent meeting, Juntos participants visited the vocational school to discuss classes offered there and what was available to them. As a result of the tour,
Author: Ryan Spicer
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
Youth are not getting the financial education which they will need for adulthood. According to the 2008 results of the Jump $tart Coalition Survey among 12th grade students received only an average score of 48.3% average on financial literacy testing. To combat this issue in Breathitt County the 4-H agent for 4-H Youth development implemented the educational programs of Dollars and Sense, and Reality Store to deliver financial literacy, and money management programming to all 4th-8th s
Author: Von Barnes
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
The senior students at Central High School's veterinary technology program had a chance to get hands-on experience with livestock. During this time, they learned proper animal care and injection sites on baby goats. The vaccinations given to the baby goats were CDT and BOSE, which are two important medications the goats would need.For this program, students were able to administer injections on livestock for the first time. They were all very nervous, but their teacher was confident. Emily C
Author: Toni Humble
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
Today’s youth will eventually enter the workforce and being prepared for that transition is crucial for their success. Employers are looking for quality applicants, with proper education or training, but also want individuals that have developed various skill sets. Through all levels of schooling students learn core subjects but they don't necessarily gain the skills they need to enter the workforce. This is a common concern for hiring professionals. To prepare our youth a
Author: Heather Coleman
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
Floyd County 4-H Partnered with the Administration of the Courts to offer a virtual Career Readiness program for at risk youth. During the virtual program youth focused on What Employers look for in an employee, what they need to consider when deciding on a career, resumes, how to dress for an interview, goal setting and ethics in the workplace. We had a total of 10 males and 1female participate in the program. Plans are to continue this program again this year.
Author: Janet Turley
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
The top five skills that employers look for in prospective employees is communication, leadership, teamwork, interpersonal and learning/adaptability. Unfortunately, iGens (young adults born during the years of 1995-2012) are so heavily immersed in social media that they spend less time practicing these valuable face to face skills. And therefore, are less equipped with the skills needed in the workplace.Fortunately, iGens 4-H members get many opportunities to experience, practice, and hone their
Author: Louis Milligan
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
Historically Youth are not interested in careers in agriculture and underrepresented in extension related programming through 4-H.Kentucky State University’s 4-H Youth Development program held the 2023 4-H Ignite Conference on April 21st. The conference drew in 100 middle school youth participants, 40 volunteers, 10 chaperones, and 15 extension staff members with students representing Jefferson County. During the conference, the participants got the opportunity to participate in 3 of the 6
Author: Danielle Kinder
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
Kentucky State University’s 4-H Youth Development Program hosted their 2023 4-H Ignite Conference on April 21st. This conference is aimed at Kentucky’s middle school youth. This year, the 4-H team decided the 4-H Ignite Conference’s model would be different than what it was in the past. In the past, the 4-H team determined the workshops, and the participants would attend the predetermined workshops, without being able to choose the workshops that interested them the most. This
Author: Danielle Kinder
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
Kentucky State University’s 4-H Youth Development program held the 2023 4-H Ignite Conference on April 21st. The conference drew in 100 middle school youth participants, 40 volunteers, 10 chaperones, and 10 extension staff members. During the conference, the participants got the opportunity to participate in 3 of the 6 available workshops of their choosing. One of the workshops offered was a workshop based on Mental Health, which was led by one of 4-H team members. This workshop exposed th
Author: Alissa Ackerman
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
Schools across Kentucky are seeking partnerships among organizations to prepare students for the workforce. According the Department for Education, “The top five skills currently valued by the nation’s largest employers are professionalism, teamwork, oral communication, ethics and social responsibility and reading comprehension.” Numerous school systems are collaborating with local organizations to achieve these goals to prepare students for success.This school year, the Clay C
Author: Julia Reid
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
It seems the most popular response when you ask young people, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" is a veterinarian. After discussing future career goals with our teen club, middle school club, ham club, and livestock club, 4-H Agent, Julia Reid, noticed this was certainly the case among her 4-Hers. In order to provide the youth with exposure to veterinary medicine, Julia called a local team of vets, Nick and Kate Werle. They agreed to help lead the club and host half of t
Author: Diane Kelley
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
The problemRetention of 14-18 year old youthThe educational program response4-H livestock educational programs and contestsThe participants/target audience4-H youth who provide care for animalsOther partners (if applicable)Kenton County 4-H Livestock Volunteers, Kenton County 4-H Council; Kenton County Fair Board; local veterinarians; local agricultural industry leaders Program impact or participant response.“Young adults who care for an animal may have stronger social relationships a
Author: Charles Stamper
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
According to Mentoring.org (2023), there are targeted characteristics a successful mentor has. These include: A sincere desire to be involved with a young person, Respect for young people, Active listening skills, Empathy, Ability to see solutions and opportunities, and Flexibility. This year marked the 11th year the Kentucky 4-H Program participated in the National 4-H Mentoring Project. Sixty 4-Hers and 15 Mentors from Cumberland, Martin, and Powell Counties participated in the Kentucky 4-H Me
Author: Diane Kelley
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
The problemRetaining senior 4-H members and recruiting CEC membersThe educational program response4-H livestock country ham lessons, opportunity to invite adult members to participate The participants/target audience4-H members, adults interested in food processesOther partners (if applicable)UK Meats Lab, Dr. Gregg Rentfrow, Regina Browning, Finchville Farms, Michael Tony RoseProgram impact or participant response.“The practice of curing country hams dates back centuries, long before
Author: Anna Meador
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
According to Griffith & Hoppner, "the most valuable employees in the organization have a mix of both hard and soft skill competence"(Griffith & Hoppner, 2013). Development of key technical tangible “hard skills” and intangible “soft skills” is critical for preparing youth for career and social success in the future. Allen County 4-H believes in the National 4-H motto “Making the Best Better” by helping to build and prepare future
Author: Candice Hollingsworth
Major Program: 21st Century Skills (Career & Workplace Development)
According to 2021 Experian data, the average American holds a debt balance of $96,371. Young people will pick up and emulate the relationship with money and spending habits of the adults in their lives. This may set them up for lifelong financial struggles. A 2017 T. Rowe Price Survey stated that 69% of parents admit they are reluctant about broaching the topic of finances with their children. To help set kids on the right path, Shelby County 4-H provided a
