In May of 2019, I was contacted by a teacher at The Learning Center, a school for 8th-12th grades in Fayette County that works with at-risk students. He was interested in a partnership with 4-H and over several emails, we discussed ideas. I went into the classroom and met with him as well as several students to gauge interest and make a plan for the next school year. In October we met again and made a more solid plan for the group. We knew they wanted to learn about and focus on Natural Resource lessons, and there was also a need for these students to gain leadership skills as well. We set into motion a plan to collaborate with a nearby elementary school and have the high school students learn a lesson, then teach it to the elementary students. We started working in October with eight high school students at The Learning Center. I introduced them to several of our 4-H lessons in Natural Resources and we dove a little deeper in the background information. We also discussed and practiced how to speak to and work with younger students. In November, I contacted the third grade teachers at Booker T. Washington Elementary School we communicated via email and I gave them background information on what we wanted to accomplish with this partnership, they were on board and we set up an in person meeting to discuss further. We met in person and discussed the specifics of what types of lessons were going to be taught and how we could work that in to their curriculum, we also worked out times and dates for the visits. We decided that we would begin working with the two groups together in the new year when everyone returned after the holiday break. I continued to work with the students at The Learning Center throughout November and December. In January we hit the ground running with the lessons, our first one was the week the students went back to school. On Tuesday of that week I met with the TLC students and refreshed them on the lesson we would be teaching the next day. On Wednesday we all met at the elementary school. We had the younger students combine their two classrooms into one and taught them all together. I introduced myself and the older students and told the third graders what we were doing. That day's lesson was about Kentucky mammals, so I taught the first animal to set the pace and show the high schoolers what to do. From that point on, they each took an animal that had been preassigned to them and taught the third graders about it. The lesson went incredibly well, I was so impressed with the way that the older students handled themselves and presented the information. After the first lesson, I received an email from the teacher I had been working with at The Learning Center, he was not able to be there for the lesson, but his coworker was and she reported everything back to him. In his email he said "You don't know how much this collaboration means to us!  I can't thank you enough.  It will be life changing for them." It was surprising to hear that even after just one day, it would have such an effect on the students! We continued through January, February, and March with 3 more lessons and would have continued on to have at least one more when the schools closed down because of the Covid-19 Pandemic.The older students did incredibly well connecting with the younger students and teaching them the lessons. There are several things that I would adjust or change for the next time around, but a lot that I would keep the same, it has been an eye opening experience for the students, and especially me, to see what a difference a little extra work can have on at-risk students. In early June, I received another email from the collaborating teacher at The Learning Center, he said "Thanks so much your work with our TLC students this year.  It was awesome in every way.  I hope you have a restful summer and we would love to have this relationship again next year!!" I was very excited to hear from him and see that he would like to continue working together in the future.