Posts

This week we had our second meetings with species superintendents. The meetings were actually a lot of fun because at each one, I laid out all of the materials I’ve been working on so far and the superintendents actually went through the stations just like the youth will at the fair. This broke up the meeting structure a lot and we enjoyed sharing some laughs as they did the activities, but was also very helpful from a planning perspective because it allowed me to pinpoint which tasks were difficult or unclear.

One major idea that came out of these meetings was to replace one of the old dog Skillathon stations at the senior level with a grooming station. We talked about how youth could complete tasks related to identifying coat types, identifying equipment, and thinking holistically to choose appropriate equipment for a given grooming scenario. This is an area that I’m not very familiar with, and I think it will be very interesting to dig into some of the content available on that subject. I plan to draw heavily from American Kennel Club’s website, per Sonja’s advice.

-Courtney

Hello again! This week, I had the opportunity to sit down with Dustin and take a look at Ohio 4-H Animal Science’s website and social media accounts. Currently, we primarily use Facebook and the website to get information out to youth exhibitors, 4-H families, and industry partners. However, we decided after our meeting that I am going to create an Instagram account as an additional way to reach youth and families. We talked about how Instagram is a very popular form of social media, and is a great way to share fun photos and quick announcements, which is a perfect fit for the State Fair!

We also discussed some ideas for improving our social media strategy and presence. A few of our big ideas are listed below:

• Include pictures with all posts if possible (higher engagement/more likes and shares)
• Start a “State Fair Countdown” series with graphics that is easily sharable and gets people excited for upcoming events at the fair
• Add more detail to the Facebook page, especially on the “About” tab so that those viewing the page for the first time can gain a general idea of what we do
• Come up with a cohesive system for posting about events (link to an online calendar on the website, creating Facebook events for each contest, etc.)
• Make sure photos are organized online so that parents and families can easily find and share them
• Start a “Spotlight Series” featuring different animal specialists from OSU, 4-H staff, exhibitors, interns, etc.- potential for written or video format

I’m looking forward to exploring each of these ideas and several more that we listed during our brainstorming session and coming up with a creative approach for communication that is unique to this audience. As 4-H is a youth organization, I’m hoping to incorporate a youth-friendly social media voice and lots of fun, bright graphics, photos, and videos to make the pages as interactive as possible. I also want to make sure that things are very clear and organized so that parents of youth have easy access to the information that they need.

Another update from this week was that we had our initial meeting about the Dog Skillathon with Sonja. Through this meeting, I learned that the Dog Skillathon is very different from most of the other species, as it is divided by age group into not only separate tasks, but into 3 completely different contests. It was interesting to learn about the rationale behind that and the differences between the youth exhibitors that show dogs versus those that show other animals. As someone with more of a livestock background personally, I’m sure that I will learn a lot from working with this aspect of the contests.

-Courtney

This week I had the opportunity to meet with individuals who are experts on each of the species for the Skillathons that I’m designing. These people, which we call Skillathon “superintendents”, come from a variety of backgrounds including Animal Science faculty roles, 4-H advisors, commodity group managers, parents of past youth showmen, and more. Each brings a unique perspective to the table and a level of expertise that is respected statewide.

For my 3 Skillathons this year, state superintendents are as follows:

Horse- Debbie Manring

Beef- Dr. Stephen Boyles, Scott and JoAnn Pfeiffer

Dog- Sonja Hyer

I was able to meet with the Beef and Horse groups this week and am looking forward to meeting with Sonja next week. These meetings were extremely informative, as we were able to set up stations from last year so I could see how the Skillathon had been run in the past, and talk through which stations from the previous year were particularly engaging, challenging, etc. This provided me some content to start with in my curriculum design, and also allowed me to start to think about ways to improve the stations this year. Dustin and myself also were able to brainstorm with each superintendent committee about what kinds of content they would like to see added this year based on industry trends and general content that they feel youth should know in order to be successful advocates for agriculture and future leaders in the industry.

For the Horse Skillathon, we plan to add an Activities & Events station and a station on Pasture Management. We also plan to incorporate some new content on equine skin and health conditions, and to add a more hands-on component to the shoe identification station from last year.

On the Beef side, we are planning to design entirely new stations focusing on Nutrition & Digestion and Health & Treatment. We also are completely revamping the Meat Science station and adding some new content to the Handling & Marketing station. The Beef Skillathon will be one of my bigger projects this summer, but I’m really looking forward to it. I showed cattle as a 4-H and FFA member for several years and I’m excited to engage with the content from an industry perspective and hopefully come up with creative ways that allow youth to do the same.

-Courtney

Hello! Welcome to my blog where I will be sharing my experiences as an intern with Ohio 4-H! I officially started with some meetings and preparation in March, but started full-time at the 4-H Center this week.

I will be working closely with my supervisor, Dustin Homan, and the other Animal Science interns, Mackenzie Dore and Deanna Langenkamp. Lucinda Miller and Liz Share, who are State Extension specialists for various livestock and companion animal species, are also a part of our team.

Deanna, Mackenzie, and I will be working to create educational content to be used in Skillathon competitions at this year’s Ohio State Fair. I have been assigned to the Beef, Horse, and Dog Skillathons and will need to come up with species-specific content for each competition that is appropriate for the 9-18 year old age group. I will be utilizing materials from previous years, research based curriculum from other land-grant universities around the country, and information received from meetings with local “experts” on each species to help design the stations.

I’m really excited about this opportunity because it will provide me with experience in a variety of different content areas, including youth development, program design, and animal sciences. It also will allow me to explore new ways of communicating and build on my past communications experiences to connect content from my major to my internship experience.  I’m looking forward to moving forward with these projects and all that the summer has in store!

Until next time,

-Courtney