My life recently has been a whirlwind of activities. Two weeks ago, I attended the 4-H Wild West camp in Salem. The following week we moved straight into Tillamook County’s 4-H horse fair and fashion revue. And this week I’m down at the Coos County Fair. Once I get back it is crunch time for the Tillamook County Fair. And once that is complete my internship will be ending.
Wild West camp final campfire.
Attending the Wild West camp as a staff member was a completely new experience for me. I say this because I was never able to go to camp as a 4-H’er even though it was something I had always wanted to be involved in. It was fun to see the interactions between counselors and campers from an outside perspective.
Some other new experiences for me were the horse fair and fashion revue. I loved getting to see and experience new sides and aspects of 4-H. It is great to see members who are so passionate about their projects.
This week I will be in Myrtle Point for the Coos County Fair for yet another new experience. I have never been able to attend another county fair other than my own. I am excited to see the differences and similarities between them and learn the ways different counties put on a fair.
Life won’t slow down after that though. Next week, there will be only two weeks until the Tillamook County fair will be fully underway. This is the most stressful part of the year but also by far my absolute favorite. I cannot wait to be surrounded by kids putting in hard work and seeing how they have learned and grown over the past year. Seeing the fruition of all of their efforts from the past few months is incredible and I am excited to see how fair works from a staff perspective rather than as a member and exhibitor.
Following fair is the end of my internship and the time for me to return to Montana and continue my education. So, with that I bid farewell to all of you and all of these amazing experiences that this internship has brought me.
Hi! My name is Anna Ehlers and I’m an OSU Extension summer intern at the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center (SOREC) in Jackson County. I am an Oregon State University student majoring in horticulture with a minor in biological data science. I am working with my supervisor Lena Hosking, 4-H program coordinator in Jackson County.
Anna Ehlers poses with her display at the Jackson County Fair.
I have been working with 4-H for the past few weeks and I am having a great time. We just finished working at the Jackson County Fair and I helped with a bunch of prep work in preparation for the fair. I started off my internship getting to know 4-H, learning about its values as an Extension program and how it contributes to the community. I have worked on many marketing projects, including making and designing flyers, creating trifold displays, and printing necessary documents for the fair. It’s a lot of work making everything perfect. I needed to have a lot of attention to detail while also displaying our message and goals of 4-H in an easy-to-read document for the community.
I had the opportunity to work at the county fair as a judge and a craft coordinator. I judged horticulture, educational displays, and miscellaneous STEM projects. I learned how to judge fairly based on the criteria. Interviewing the younger kids was pretty fun! Many of them had passions in different projects, and I really enjoyed talking with them about their projects. I made sure to leave plenty of comments on all of their work, even when I already worked eight hours that day, because I wanted to make sure everyone could look back and see how they could improve their projects in the future. I did my best to be fair and in line with the guidelines set in place for the different age groups. As you may expect, the older kids did better than the younger kids, but I saw a lot of potential in many of the projects I judged that day.
My favorite part of the fair was working with the public as a craft coordinator. I had thought of three different projects, with advice from my supervisor, about what projects I could do. I needed to find project instructions online and modify them to work with the age groups I was expected to work with. I also needed to find all the supplies I needed in storage and create a list of the necessary materials needed to be ordered to make these projects possible. The projects I presented were dirt buddies, animal tracks/pinecone people, and bead crafts.
A youth pinecone craft.
The dirt buddies were a fun project where the kids put grass seed and dirt into a nylon sock, gluing googly eyes to the outside. When the kids get home, they watered their buddy and in a few days the grass seeds germinated and started to grow grass out of the top of their head – similar to a Chia Pet.
For my animal tracks and pinecone people craft I had plaster casts of four different animal footprints to show and ask the kids what they noticed about the tracks. I asked them about how many toes the tracks had then asked the kids how many fingers they had. Some of the younger kids thought it was pretty cool that opossums have the same number of toes that we do. I supplied coloring sheets with the same animals as the plaster casts so that they could make connections with the tracks to the animal. I also had a print-out of different animal tracks that the kids could look at. Their parents and grandparents were very intrigued by this page more than the kids were. On the other side of my table, I had the pinecone people crafts. The craft involves decorating a pinecone with googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and feathers to create a fun character. These two activities were designed to teach the kids about nature.
The final project I worked on was bead crafts. I provided images and instructions on how to make a bead doll, jellyfish, and a snake using various materials including pipe cleaners, egg cartons, string, pony beads, and googly eyes. This project was intended to work on motor skills as well as provide a chance to be creative using only a handful of materials. A number of kids deviated from my craft images and made their own designs, showing their creativity and ingenuity.
I have really enjoyed my time here so far. In the coming weeks I will be working with the different departments around SOREC as well as developing a horticulture curriculum for 4-H designed to be used next year.
Hello again! I am Kylie Siddoway, and I am interning at the OSU Extension office in Baker County Extension this summer.
With only a few weeks left of my internship I have learned a lot and experienced more. I am so thankful to have had this opportunity and to have worked with such amazing people. The Extension office and the Baker County Fairboard have been extraordinary. The last week of my internship is August 8-12 and it is also the Baker County Fair!
Kylie Siddoway
I have been responsible for major components of the fair such as vendors, volunteers and open class registration. I have communicated with businesses, professionals, and community members. I’ve managed the Facebook page and recorded radio advertisements. The 4-H and FFA staff have helped me to brainstorm new ideas for this year’s fair, and for future fairs. Later this week I will be training all superintendents for open class and ensuring they are prepared for the fair.
Along with all the preparation that goes into our county fair, I have had the opportunity to learn how to run and manage an office. My supervisor, Angela Robb, is an amazing teacher and has explained things to me in a way that I truly learn not only how, but why tasks are done.
This was more than a “copier and coffee” internship. It was a true professional job experience that has enhanced my skills and made me a more well-rounded and hirable employee. I truly enjoyed my internship and the people involved.
I highly recommend being involved with your county 4-H program. There is so much to be learned and so many opportunities to grow as an individual. My county is very livestock-oriented and I am myself, but there is more to 4-H than raising animals and more to Extension than many people realize!
This summer internship has had such a positive impact on me so far. My time spent working for OSU Extension in Malheur County is exciting and significant. It’s been illuminating to become aware of certain issues my county faces and how I can help meet their needs. Learning about different local partners in my county is very important to me as well because it expands my worldview.
Yolanda Diaz (left) helps with the makerspace event.
I’ve gotten to work with youth for makerspace events at summer school and with community partners. Makerspace is a program of the Frontier STEM Hub. It includes 3D printing, laser engraving, vinyl cutting for stickers, and heat-press for making T-shirts. I help students in our county by fostering their technology skills, spreading entrepreneurship awareness and expanding creativity.
The most recent makerspace event was in partnership with the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization. Interacting with youth through their designs and creations was a great way to learn about their stories and cultures. The makerspace builds a career-connected learning opportunity for youth and families within our county. One thing I love about Extension in Malheur County is that it does its best to be culturally responsive in diverse and effective manners.
Another valuable event that I’ve had the opportunity to help with is a literacy walk. We had about 30 different stations where leaders implemented physical activities to get from one “page” to another. The books that we use for walk-an- read events encourage students in regards to physical activity. I highly enjoy delivering this activity to create an action-oriented experience for children. One of our upcoming walk-and-read events will be Ontario Municipal Airport where families can meet with pilots and learn about different helicopters or planes. It will be a great experience!
Children participate in the walk-and-read literacy event in Malheur County. Photo by Yolanda Diaz.
Being a leader for 4-H participants has also been an eye-opening experience. I enjoy getting to know each student individually and am always impressed by their outstanding skills and service. Chaperoning for the state 4-H Summer Conference at OSU in Corvallis was a good time for me to learn the role of an adult in a different setting and be able to create the best experience possible for 4-Hers. I can’t wait to be a chaperone (and returning alumni) for the state Chief Science Officers Leadership Institute at East Oregon University.
This internship has also taught me to set boundaries and maintain a professional relationship with students who are close to my age, which will be important for my future profession. I also have the opportunity to document and establish fun activities for the Malheur Works internship program in their professional development days. My internship has exposed me to new roles and experiences that help me become more responsible as I’m adulting.
We still have so much planned for this summer, such as county fair and summer camps. I have such an amazing supervisor in Barbara Brody and can’t wait to continue learning with her help. I’m thankful for having such a positive work environment and I thank OSU Extension for giving me this great opportunity.
Hello everyone, my name is Theo Sandoz. I just graduated The Dalles High School, and I am headed to OSU as a freshman in the fall. Through OSU Extension 4-H and FFA for the past nine years I have raised and shown beef and swine projects, done countless presentations and created enough projects to fill a treasure chest full of amazing stuff. I was told about the OSU Extension internship program through Lu Seapy, 4-H youth development STEM educator in Wasco County. Lu was my robotics coach at the time. I started about three weeks ago and decided that this summer was for me to learn a little bit about everything.
Lu, who will be supervising me this summer, and I have known each other for a long time. She has been teaching science, technology, math and engineering (STEM) camps since I was in middle school. Now it is my job to help her plan and teach these camps as well as other staff here at Wasco Extension. One of my biggest undertakings is migrant education twice a week. We are teaching four STEM classes a day to the children of migrant workers in The Dalles starting at 6 a.m. This happens on the days that our summer camps do not conflict. This week we also have the Amazing Race, Garden Art, VEX IQ Robotics and many other camps.
I have taken on this Internship on top of my job at our local movie theater and working on our farm. This summer I decided that I was going to use all my available time to work as it is the last time before I must start paying for college. The internship program really does mean a lot to me because I have grown up in 4-H and now I am able to give back to 4-H through Extension as well as participating in my last year. Everyone here at the office is amazing to work with and I am glad that I agreed to come onboard!
Hi everyone, my name is Maya. I just concluded my first year at OSU where I am in the master’s of public health program, with the health behavior and health promotion option. I will be spending my summer interning with the OSU Extension 4-H program in Lane County. As a previous 4-H member and volunteer this has been a wonderful opportunity to get involved with positive youth development
During the school year, I work with the OSU Center for Health Innovation on the OSU-OHA Surge Epi Bench, collaborating on the COVID-19 response. I am so excited to have a break from work with COVID-19 response this summer and get out to work with youth in my community.
I am passionate about expanding early childhood education programs and child and family social policy. This experience working with 4-H in Lane County has been insightful for my understanding of the importance of advocating for continued local, state and federal funding for youth programming. Reading peer-reviewed articles is one thing but working alongside the community in providing these services has served as an invaluable experience.
Lane County 4-H has been so kind as to trust me with their social media page for the duration of my internship. This opportunity to expand my experience utilizing social media for health promotion and community outreach and engagement has been highly valuable.
I cannot thank enough all of the wonderful staff at OSU Lane County Extension for being so kind and welcoming. I look forward to updating everyone on the jam-packed summer to come. Keep an eye out for us at the Lane County Fair and our upcoming summer day camps.
Hello, I am Bobbie Ann Sharp and I am excited to be spending the summer serving the OSU Extension 4-H Program at the Umatilla County office in Pendleton. I just completed my third year at the University of Idaho, where I am studying agriculture communications, science and leadership. I am from Hermiston and was involved in 4-H in Umatilla County for almost 10 years. I’m super excited to see a different side to the 4-H program I grew up in and what molded me into who I am today.
Within the 4-H program, I found my passion for helping others, animals, and agriculture. I was also involved in FFA throughout my high school career. I understand how each program differs from the other and what all you can gain from both.
This summer, I’m ready to see the behind-the-scenes work that makes 4-H in Umatilla County so great. This internship is a huge learning opportunity for me and will help me in deciding the best career path. I am also excited for all the new experiences I will get to learn and witness firsthand. I can’t wait to be a part of the effect this program has on the members.
This summer my big project is creating activities for Camp Cloverbud. I am in charge of contacting volunteers, the location, choosing activities and arranging all the materials needed for the event. I am excited to see how the event goes and how the kids react to the activities I have picked for them. Thanks for welcoming me as an intern and let’s have a great summer.
Hello everyone, my name is Celilo Brun. I grew up in the Hood River Valley where I was a part of OSU Extension 4-H for as long as I can remember, and FFA. After I graduated from high school, I moved to Joseph, Oregon, where took a year off of school to serve as the 2020-21 Oregon FFA state treasurer. As treasurer, I learned more about agriculture while helping kids find their passion in ag and FFA. I also started my own show cattle company, Hurricane Cattle Co. This allowed me to continue to fuel my passion for the livestock industry. Fun fact: I have shown cattle in over 10 states!
Celilo Brun with her steer, Henry and her heifer, Sassy.
This past school year I attended Eastern Wyoming College (EWC) where I am majoring in agriculture communications. On top of my schooling, I am on the Livestock Judging Team, Show Team, and I am the president of our Block and Bridle Club (a collegiate agriculture club). After my sophomore year at EWC I plan on transferring to a university to continue my education and livestock judging.
If you can’t tell, my passions have always been for agriculture and advocating for the future of agriculture. I believe that advocating for the future generations in agriculture is essential because they become the future leaders in agriculture. In my future I would like to be a traveling sales representative for an agriculture-related company, as well as continuing to be an agricultural advocate through seminars and leadership opportunities.
Celilo Brun took pictures at this year’s Eastern Oregon Livestock Show.
I began my internship in the OSU Extension office in Wallowa County at the beginning of June. I jumped right into planning and preparing for the Eastern Oregon Livestock Show. From there I have been helping the SNAP-Ed nutrition program by attending summer lunch programs, the Wallowa County Watershed Festival, and facilitating workshops to kiddos in the Building Healthy Families summer program. During the slower days I have been preparing for the Wallowa County Fair, Tri-County 4-H Camp, and my cattle clinic. This time of year it’s crazy in the Extension office with deadlines, fair, and various events that have been taking place!
Ever since I joined 4-H in fourth grade I thought OSU Extension has been a very positive and welcoming environment. I have attended workshops and done various projects though extension and I never once felt like I wasn’t at home. The staff are some of the hardest working people I know, and they want everyone to succeed in what they are doing. Extension agents and staff are truly superheroes.
Hello there! I am Keon Cohl Kiser, a freshly cooked college freshman going into my second year at Oregon State University. I am studying to be an environmental engineer with honors, with a hope to provide new solutions and/or sustainable alternatives for waste treatment through the study of organic decay. For me to be ready to take those steps I wanted to take an internship position to familiarize myself with the working environment and communal relationships.
I found this opportunity at the OSU Extension office in The Dalles with the Extension 4-H program, whose mission is to provide meaningful opportunities for all youths and adults to work together to create sustainable community change. I experienced a change as a high school student participating in the VEX Robotics Program, organized by Lu Seapy, 4-H STEM educator in Wasco County.
Through 4-H I was introduced into STEM and I was able to find a calling in my life to help improve the health of our planet and our communities, leading me into the engineering field. This is something that I hope I can give back to youths by introducing them to a multitude of topics like robotics and biology (as a few examples) to provide a groundwork for whatever path they are called to be on.
Not only will I build communal relationships and communication skills, I will also be put into an environment where I am charged with tasks to be done by deadlines. This opportunity provides new habits of scheduling, planning and executive decision-making, when needed.
Being at 4-H I can be a part of the lives of many people within my community, striving to enthrall youths in a variety of ways to encourage them to push themselves to grow in their future careers and as people. Similarly, I will grow with this experience communally and technically to establish the groundwork for my future.
My name is Alli Dixson. I am a sophomore at Montana State University studying animal science with a concentration in livestock management and industries. Through my experiences in Oregon 4-H and FFA I found my love of agriculture and more specifically livestock. For that reason, I have chosen to come back home for the summer to work as an intern for 4-H in the OSU Extension office in Tillamook County. Through the summer I hope to get a firsthand experience of what it’s like to work in Extension along with gaining key skills that are essential to any workplace.
Alli Dixson (middle) helping a Cloverbud launch a bottle rocket.
While I’ve only been working with Extension for a short while, I’ve definitely been busy. My first week I planned and assisted in instructing and leading a livestock clinic for 4-H members. We covered some basic information and specialty management techniques of swine, cattle, sheep and goats. The 4-H’ers learned through both a classroom setting and many hands-on activities involving feed rationing, contagious disease, animal behavior and safe injections.
Alli Dixson (right) assisting at a poultry clinic.
The following week I moved directly into 4-H Cloverbud day camps. We had an action-packed three days of art, crafts, and science. Some of the fun learning activities included making wildflower paper, planting herbs, cloud watching, and launching bottle rockets. The kids had a great time, and I enjoyed getting to work on my teaching skills along with my ability to manage a room of kids. It was a great experience and I hope to have many more like it throughout the summer.
Just this past week I’ve attended a poultry clinic in which members learned how to show chickens, ducks, and turkeys. Throughout the week I have also been working on planning and preparing for our 4-H junior day camps for 9- to 12-year-olds. During this camp we will cover topics such as engineering, horticulture, and other stem topics. While I’ve clearly been very busy, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I have enjoyed being surrounded by kids, stem, agriculture, and most importantly learning.
