Hello everyone! This is Alyson Yates, checking in with an update from Lake County. I am just entering the eighth week of my internship, and my experience with the Extension program so far has been very fulfilling. While I have learned about many different areas within OSU Extension in Lake County, my primary focus has been working with local youth in a few different programs.
I began my internship by assisting with Lake County 4-H LEGO Camp, a four-day event intended to teach elementary-age youth about robotics, basic programming, and inspire creativity and interest in STEM. Each day, I guided our youth attendees through the construction of several robots and taught them how to add basic programming through an app. This was a great way to start my internship experience, as I got to work with youth in a fun, educational environment and connect with a group of older youth leaders in 4-H. I was also able to begin accomplishing one of my goals for this internship, which is to update our county office’s photo database with new, high-quality photographs of our 4-H events.
During the last week of July, I assisted with the planning and execution of the first annual Lake County Youth Summit. Lake County Extension collaborated with Lake District Health, the Lake County Youth Mentor Program, and several other groups to create a summer day camp made up of workshops, activities, and games to help youth improve their leadership skills. Although plans for the event had to be adjusted due to the extreme fire danger in southern Oregon, we were able to organize a successful and fun event for the youth that attended. Activities were focused on helping youth recognize their values, understand their self-worth, persevere through their struggles, and learn how to be a positive influence within their community.
I am currently in the midst of my internship project, which is structured around leading arts and crafts classes for the Fremont Elementary Summer School program. I have a few more classes to teach before my project comes to an end, but this has been a great opportunity for me to gain experience working with K-2 grade youth in a classroom environment. Art-based programming is very important to me, and I hope that projects like this will help engage our local youth in the arts and inspire them to participate in similar activities in the future!
As I begin to launch into preparation for the Lake County Fair, I feel very excited to be involved in this program from a different perspective. Throughout my years as a 4-H member, the county fair was always the best week of the summer, and I am so thrilled to be a part of this 4-H tradition as a part of the Extension team! It means so much to me that I am directly impacting the experiences of youth in my county, and I am looking forward to the last few weeks of my internship.
