4-H

Interviewing Teens for 4-H and Jr. Fair Opportunities

Who wants a serious picture for a serious blog post? Not me! 3 of our camp counselors!

Who wants a serious picture for a serious blog post? Not me! 3 of our camp counselors!

The strategy that I use for teen interviews allows for youth to show their strengths and talents through a variety of stations. They are part of a group interview process, problem-solving station, and finally give a brief presentation on an idea for a session/craft idea (camp counselors) or present their problem solving

I have found that with the introduction of Project Based Learning (or PBL as the kids call it) that many of the teens I interview are ready for my questions and inquiries. I interview youth for two specific opportunities, Jr. Fair Board and 4-H Camp Counselors. Below is a more in-depth description of how I do the interview for replication purposes.

For each of the three parts – I use this chart to help guide my grading process for them.

Grading Scale of Points PicturesRubric for Interview Activity and Session (PDF)

 

Part One: The Interview

I have found that conducting one-on-one interviews simply isn’t as effective as doing a group interview. I am interested in seeing how these youth interact with one another, communicate and develop a conversation. Through their project judging and special interviews they have plenty one-on-one experiences – so I choose this group method to watch them in action.

For the Camp Counselors and the Jr. Fair Board – I use the same questions – but allow for those helping interview to interject questions. We try to ask each group the same questions each time.

Here are the questions that we have been using. I am sure at some point the list has come from various places – but as this point the sources are unknown to me. So if you know the source – please share as I would be happy to give credit where credit is due.

Camp Counselor Interview Questions (PDF)

Part Two: Activity: Problem Solving and Planning

The second part of the interviews is the problem solving section. This is where we give each of the applicants a task to accomplish or problem to overcome together. For the Jr. Fair Board we kept it quite simple this year and asked them to plan an event or activity for the fair that would be fun! For the camp counselors I asked them to plan a full camp (100 kids for 2 hours) event using the big activity field. They also had to take in consideration costs, safety, and weather. This time was all theirs to plan – and we as adults use this time to watch them work. How do they interact with one another? How do they lead? Are they comfortable contributing?

 

Part Three: Session: Presentation of Ideas and/or Craft/Session Idea

Finally, I ask the Jr. Fair Board to present their problem solving ideas to the interviewing group. They explain what they are interested in doing, how much it may cost, and how they plan to accomplish that plan.

The 4-H Camp Counselors have a bit of a different presentation. They are asked to individually bring a session idea to present. It should be an activity for 9-15 year olds to do in a camp setting, last around 30-60 minutes, and something that youth would enjoy doing. Many of the applicants will bring their craft ideas, show the steps, and then the finished product. Other presentations have included ideas for sports to play at camp, activities using items at camp, or modifications of sessions done already to improve them.

 

The hardest part is the determining who we can accept for a current year’s board or camp counselor group – and who will need to wait for another year. I make a point to write notes on the letters and give written feedback to youth so they know how they can improve for the future – and so that their parents are also aware of how they can improve. This is hardest part for me as I hate telling anyone no!

I hope these guidelines help others in their interviewing process with youth.

Reflections on NAE4-HA 2015

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Theresa, Myself, Shelia, and Christy at the NAE4-HA Banquet

This past week I was blessed with the opportunity to attend the National Association of Extension 4-H Agents Conference in Portland, Oregon. The conference is an annual event that offers a time for meeting with other professionals from around the nation, learning about their programs, discovering new ideas for my own program, and furthering myself professionally.  It is also a time of celebration with colleagues to congratulate them on their achievements on the regional and national level. We had 67 delegates from Ohio attend the Portland Conference this year! It was nice to have a large group of people I work with experiencing the same speakers, and workshops as myself. In reflection, I came away with 5 big concepts to use, or apply more to my 2016 programming.

1. Show and model what a good one looks like. Often times kids don’t know, what they don’t know. How can we as 4-H professionals model good 4-H projects, events, and leadership? I think by improving our expectations and making them even more clear, we can set our kids up for success in our county, and state levels. I am aiming to set up more clear goals of my hopes for the program to volunteers, so they can be part of this too.

2. Kids in the crisis of poverty make great leaders. Poverty is not something that was on the forefront of my youth development issues, but after our speaker, Dr. Donna Beegle, it is now. Kids who are worried about their next meal, where they are going to sleep, and if their siblings are safe often do not make good students. They don’t do homework, they don’t pay attention in class. They forget to bring in papers (because mom/dad aren’t home to sign them) and we look at them as being disobedient. However, what we miss is that they are fighting to survive. They are taking care of siblings, they are worried about things that people in middle class families take for granted. This sense of responsibility is how they stay resilient, and how we can make them great leaders in our programs. Instead of dismissing a child/teen as a problem, I need to make sure I am giving them a safe environment, and the skills they need to grow.

3. Break big tasks into small steps. Have you ever looked at a project and found yourself demotivated by the size of the workload? It happens to all of us. Teaching kids to break big projects into small steps is a strategy for success they will use for a long time. When working with my teens, I am planning to be more deliberate in showing the big picture, and how we are breaking it up into parts to accomplish the goal. The first thought I have is to use it with my promotional group, Buckeye Ambassadors. They work to market the program which is a huge task, but how am I going to help them get to the big goal if I don’t show them the steps they need to take in the meantime?

4. Environmental Education ROCKS! My favorite session was with LSU on different strategies for Environmental Education. We learned animal yoga poses, bird migration cycles, and insect life cycles all by getting up and moving. This session really will help me with working more of this type of education in to 4-H Residential Camp sessions that are healthy living based.

5. Collaborate, Collaborate, COLLABORATE! Through the week I have worked on becoming more comfortable asking my fellow 4-H professionals what their specialization is, and how we can work together. I was able to learn more about cloverbuds and how I can make my volunteer training better, and compared fun things like Jr. Fair issues, and how their shows run. I like talking with others about their programming because it gives me a chance to improve my own for the Van Wert Community.

Going to conferences is a great opportunity for 4-H professionals. Coming home is even more exciting! I cannot wait to apply what I have learned, and I feel renewed and ready for 2016 and the planning that will be taking place in the next few months before we kick off in January. I suppose even 4-H professionals need retreats to recharge too.