The 1890 Collaboration is the first of its kind for five other HBCUs institutions. This collaboration exposes youth to workforce careers in agriculture and STEM related fields. This task is not an easy task as it brings all the institutions together to do effective programming throughout the year, and then in the summer, fifteen students from each institution are able to go. This year came with challenges as KYSU was able to send nine out of fifteen students to the camp. 

This trip might look like a simple win from the outside, but truthfully, it came with some real challenges, some out of our control, and some on leadership. At the end of the day, 4-H was able to pull through. That said, thank you to all who helped pull through and stayed with it, and helped make it happen anyway. We pulled this off with only two days to go. I’m committed to learning from this experience and doing my part to ensure the hiccups don’t repeat. I appreciate the grace, and even more, I appreciate the way this team showed up for our young people.

4-H youth development is a great program to be in, and when everything works, it just works. While in attendance in Texas, we were able to serve over 100 youth from all the participating institutions. The youth will be completing the surveys that were administered to give more detail on what went well and what didn't, but overall, the program was a success.