All Good Things Must Come to an End

It is a common theme for folks to be sad to see the summer holiday drift into a new school year.  I am no exception.  This year I am even more sad to see it go, because it also means the end of my internship.  I wrapped up my time as Giles County VCE intern with a few fun events here and there including Agriculture Field Day at Kentland, a Giles/Bland Summer Beef Field Day, and Childfest at Pearisburg.  These events were fun ways to be involved with the Giles County community before school completely took over my life.

Face painting Iron Man at Childfest

Applying for this internship was almost by chance.  To me, internships were always something that undergraduates were supposed to do, not someone who recently graduated.  I decided to go for it.  You might not hear this often, but I was lucky that I was turned down at two different county offices before I received an offer from Giles.  Cora and Jeannie took a chance on me, and I'm sure glad they did!  Although I have a diploma in hand, I still am not 100% set on what exact career the future has in store for me, but this internship has given me a few steps in the right direction.  Working in Giles has given me a renewed respect and appreciation of VCE and its services.  Working with Cora and Jeannie helped me to build myself as an individual while having a great time, and to them I am forever grateful.

With graduate school in full swing, I miss working in Giles more than ever.  But like Jeannie has told me several times "An education is never wasted."  That, along with many words of advice and strategies I learned from my unit agents, will help me to trek through this whirlwind of a program.   It will help me as I student teach, but more importantly it will help me if I become an extension agent.  Before this internship I was not very sure if I would like to be one, but now I would love to be!  I'll try to keep working hard and hopefully my education and opportunities will lead me down a path filled with agriculture and community development.  Growing in Giles as the VCE intern has been one of the best choices of my life and I encourage any college student to become an intern, especially in Giles.

Beautiful view from Triple R Farms during the Beef Field Day

Thank you for following my adventures in Giles!  I hope you enjoyed learning about Giles County and Virginia Cooperative Extension.  I encourage you to become involved in your local agency and support your county agents.

Youth and Community Involvement

While in the extension office I have had the opportunity to participate in several of the 4-H club activities and other events in the community.  It has been a long time since I was involved in 4-H clubs and community activities so it was great to see what other possibilities there are for 4-H youth.

With extension, I was able to be a part of Pearisburg Festival in the Park several weekends ago.  By attending planning meetings with Cora I was able to network with community members who were not necessarily in agriculture, which I have done by working with Jeannie.  It also gave me insight on how planning for community programs and events works.  There is so much that attendees of events take for granted that goes on behind the scenes.  During the event I help with traffic control during the inaugural 5K for the festival.  I hope that maybe next year I can be around to participate!  During the festival I helped set up and man the booth for the Ag Explorers Club.  I got to meet some of the members and parents, the adult volunteer Kelly, and some cute critters!

My new friend at Pearisburg Festival in the Park

I also tagged along for the Rich Creek June meeting.  Although the turn out was small, it was fun getting to know some of the older 4-H members after my first day with 4-H Cloverbud Day Camp.  Even more exciting for me was that the topic was June is Dairy Month and I was able to talk about my favorite agriculture industry!  Since then, I have done the educational program for the Ag Explorers meeting for July on beef cattle, and will be attending the July Rich Creek meeting tonight.

Another aspect of youth development that I got to participate in was a livestock judging trip to Augusta County.  The 4-H/FFA Livestock judging team got some great live practice at different farms.  I even got to brush up on my own judging skills...which are still in need of some work.

The three little pigs

My classes for graduate school started today, so my time working with extension will be limited.  I am really looking forward to helping with the Newport Agricultural Fair next month!  Newport is Virginia's oldest agricultural fair and will be a fun break from the busy class schedule.

I know my posts have been far and few between, but look out for some posts about 4-H Day Camps soon!

Just Another Learning Experience: 4-H Cloverbud Day Camp

Internships are all about learning and real-life experience while being out of your comfort zone.  While assisting with 4-H Cloverbud Day Camp, I had all of those aspects.  Not having much experience with very young youth I was nervous to work with Camp, even though I was mostly helping supervise instead of facilitating.

Robyn shows the campers chive to pick

For day camp we had ten youth, ages 5-8 for a week.  Each day had a different focus on topics that they have/will study in school and can also be a part of 4-H curriculum.  The first day was about geology where we went to Whitt-Riverbend Park in Pembroke.  There, we went on a trail walk and learned about the different types of rocks and their uses.  Day two was a real treat because we got to tube down the New River at the New River's Edge.  Following that the students learned about watersheds and how runoff and pollution affect water through hands-on models.  Wednesday was my turn to facilitate the activities.  We visited Virginia Tech's Farms and Fields project at Kentland.  Robyn and Alison, farmhands, showed the students around.  Robyn led the students through the demonstration plot where they were able to pick mint, chive, and raspberries, among other things.  Alison finished the tour of the actual plots and then let the students be farmers for a day and plant a row of corn.  In the afternoon we learned about Virginia agriculture through VA agriculture maps.  Even though it stormed something crazy, we didn't let that stop us from making delicious homemade ice cream!  Thursday's topic was on citizenship.  Ken Vittum, the Pearisburg town manager along with a town police officer taught the campers how a town council works and duties of an officer to protect the public.  They had a nice surprise for us and allowed the kids to explore a police car and the town digger!  We wrapped up citizenship day with a little history lesson and GPS exercise by hiking up to Pearis Cemetery.  The week ended with a lesson on financial management after visiting Dismal Falls.

Pearisburg officer and the students with the police car

I'll be honest, day one was a shocker.  A handful of young kids running around is not my normal environment.  After the initial shock, as the week passed my observations helped me to be a better chaperon and facilitator.  The kids grew on me and I gained a better understanding of how they learn and play.  There are still plenty of areas of youth program management that I could really work on.  Effective discipline was and still is the biggest hurdle for me when it comes to young children.  From this week, it did concrete the concept of establishing rules and always enforcing them.  During my facilitation time when I upheld my rules about interrupting, the lesson went better.  I really hope that I can take my experience from Day Camp into the classroom or wherever I may end up.  This opportunity made me further value in experience for education, because the books can only tell you so much.

Keep following for more of my learning and self growth experiences in Giles VCE!