Final Day of the Internship

Today is the last day of my internship. What a busy summer it has been! Summer camp, 4-H State Congress, the Albemarle County Fair, workshops, Main Street Ag Day meetings...the list goes on and on. I have had the opportunity  to meet so many wonderful people this summer! Whether it was community projects, summer camp, the fair, or summer workshops, I was able to meet so many wonderful children and adults in Charlottesville/Albemarle. I have learned more about 4-H from the adult side of events instead of the youth side. I spent years in 4-H and was very involved in different clubs and events however when you are the one planning, buying supplies for, and running an event it is VERY different than being the participant. I was lucky enough to have help from many awesome people around the office. Karrin has helped me with so much this summer and I have learned a lot just from watching what all she does. Whether it is just learning from her organizational skills or figuring out that all camp preparation can be completed 3 days before summer camp begins...I have learned what all a 4-H agent does during the summer and how passionate an agent has to be about 4-H to devote almost all their time to 4-H. I'm sure this school year will be just as great as the summer was!
I have been lucky enough to have another intern around the office this summer which was a lot of fun! Morgan was the FCS/ANR intern and we had the opportunity to work together for a few projects this summer and I had a lot of fun getting to know her!
This summer I really enjoyed working in the office with Nancy, Ian, Cat, Kathy, Karrin, Carrie, Alicia, Ellie, and the many master gardeners that came in each week. Not only was I able to see how an extension office runs, I was able to see people work together to make every event possible. The diverse topics that Virginia Cooperative Extension offers knowledge, help, and advice in is amazing and VCE is such an awesome resource to have statewide. I did an internship last summer with VCE in Greene County and between the two summers I have spent involved in 4-H I have realized how rewarding being a 4-H agent can be. Sure, it is stressful at times, but the number of children's lives you impact and help learn about farming, nutrition, life skills, public speaking, and so much more is awesome. Children look up to 4-H agents and I can't wait to see if one day I will have to opportunity to become a 4-H agent and impact children's lives just as I've seen every other 4-H agent do. This summer has been AWESOME! :)

Most of our awesome office staff! :)

Recycled Arts and Crafts Workshop for 9-13 Year Olds

Today we had another recycled arts and crafts workshops scheduled, but we had a low number of people sign up and ended up not having anyone show up for it. I had planned some pretty cool activities for it, one of which was turning an old t-shirt into a cool little bag. Since plans changed, I had time to do a few other things that I need to get done before my internship is over, which is in a few days. Morgan, the other intern and I updated the 4-H bulletin board and took some old pictures off the wall. I also cleaned out the cabinet that I had organized at the beginning of the internship and destroyed throughout the summer as I grabbed stuff for workshops out of it. It was a pretty relaxing but a productive day!

Albemarle County Fair 2014

The Albemarle County Fair has come and gone! So much planning, so many contacts, so much organizing...but the fair went SO well! I was very impressed with how smoothly the whole 3 days of the fair went! We set up cages and the ring and pens on Wednesday, animals and people arrived Thursday, then Thursday evening, Friday, and Saturday were spent having fun, showing animals, selling animals, riding rides, and eating at the fair! All the 4-Hers who showed animals did a GREAT job and were all very excited to receive ribbons for their projects. We had some awesome judges, good lookin' animals, and great people in our 4-H exhibit tent all weekend! We had a large number of animals including poultry, rabbits, lambs, hogs, goats, and a steer. All did well in the show and those who sold did great in the sale! I am from Rockingham County so seeing the difference in the show and sale between Rockingham and Albemarle was fun. Sale prices here are AWESOME! I am so excited for the opportunities these buyers are giving the 4-Hers they support. Dakota Pullaro surpassed his goal of reaching $50,000 from selling animals at the Albemarle County Fair over the last 11 years. That blew me away! What an awesome goal to meet! Many other 4-Hers found success in the sale this year as well. Thank you buyers! You are making a difference in the lives of these 4-Hers! Each 4-H member who was showing also received a feed bucket, water bottle, shirt, and 4-H decal thanks to fundraisers, donations, and local businesses and support. I feel like the fair was a success overall and everyone had fun! I will definitely be back next year to see how the fair goes! I am happy I got to be a part of the behind the scenes work and effort that went into planning the fair!

Check back for pictures! :)

Cloverbud Recycled Arts and Crafts Workshop

On Tuesday, July 29th, I hosted a recycled arts and crafts workshop for cloverbuds at the extension office. We had 6 cloverbuds show up and had a great workshop! We made rock pets, puppets, a button clover, straw necklaces, and more! We all had a lot of fun and enjoyed the 6 hour workshop. After lunch we went outside and played Simon Says for a little while to get rid of some of our energy then went inside and got back to work. Each child got to take home multiple crafts they made and even put on a puppet show for their parents before they left.

STEM Workshop

Yesterday we had a successful STEM workshop with 9-13 year olds. We had 8 kids show up and participate in the workshop. We started the day with Dancing mothballs which we had fun watching bounce up and down in a liquid solution. After that we made thermometers with water, rubbing alcohol, and food coloring. Following the thermometers, we made drawbots. Our drawbots were made out of styrofoam cups, wire, a small motor, a push button, a battery pack, a penny, and washable markers. The children worked in pairs and designed their robots cup with different colors then we began attaching the motor, push button, battery pack, wires, and electrical tape in the correct places. We then attached markers around the base and used a white tablecloth and turned on all of our drawbots on at the same time and let them draw all over the tablecloth. It was awesome! Random items that we attached created a robot that could draw!
We took a break for lunch and watched some Bill Nye the Science Guy while we ate. Following lunch we made ice cream in a bag. This was a good dessert surprise after lunch!
After we cleaned up from the ice cream making we started our Bubbleology unit. We spent the rest of the afternoon testing soaps and bubble solutions to see which made the biggest bubbles. We had some children make some HUGE bubbles. We also had a competition to see who could create a device that would make the biggest bubbles. Everyone had fun, got covered in marker and bubbles!

Workshop & Fair Planning and Preparation

I've been planning for workshops and going shopping with Karrin for workshop and fair supplies. I have typed many documents, organized binders and papers, and helped pick out things for the Albemarle County Fair this year! I am excited for the fair to be here. Like camp, a lot of planning has gone into the fair and I am excited to see the how it goes! I'm from Rockingham County so I've heard Albemarle's fair is a little different than ours, and a little smaller. I guess I'll find out firsthand!
I have been putting lots of time and energy into planning my upcoming workshops and I'm excited to teach them! We will be doing lots of fun activities at each workshop! I hope to see lots of people at the fair and lots of children at my workshops! :)

Wacky Science Cloverbud Workshop

Yesterday I hosted the Wacky Science Cloverbud Workshop from 9am-3pm. We started the day by using air dry clay to make volcanoes around a soda bottle, After that we looked at the way rain works by using water, shaving cream, and food coloring and watched the food coloring go through the shaving cream cloud. We also soaked gummy bears in different solutions. We used water, soapy water, vinegar, rubbing alcohol, and liquid starch as solutions and checked to see the growth of the gummy bears throughout the day. (The gummy bear in water was the largest, but each solution had different effects on the gummy bears.) We then looked at density and used honey, corn syrup, dish soap, water, olive oil, and rubbing alcohol (dyed different colors for different layers) and out them in clear cups to observe the differences in densities between different liquids. We colored some coffee filters with washable markers and used water to watch the ink colors spread out. We were going to make these tie dye filters into butterflies but we ran out of time. :( The kids all wanted to take a little break after that and we took about 15 minutes to sing along to songs from the movie, Frozen, and dance. We did the Macarena, Cupid Shuffle, and Cha Cha Slide before we decided we were hungry and wanted lunch. We ate lunch and watched some Magic School Bus, then decided to have some free play with spaghetti noodles and marshmallows. A lot of marshmallows disappeared during this activity and it was cool to see all the creativity during this time! After that, we cleaned up LOTS of spaghetti noodles and headed outside to see how the volcanoes the kids had made earlier in the day worked! We used lots of baking soda and vinegar and both volcanoes erupted multiple times. Everyone enjoyed that. We also looked at the difference between pouring baking soda into a vinegar/water solution or pouring vinegar/water into baking soda. We found out that pouring the liquid over the baking soda causes a much larger and faster eruption. After the volcanoes were full of vinegar and were not erupting anymore, we moved on to Diet Coke and Mentos! We put Mentos into 6 2 liter bottles of Diet Coke and watched the Diet Coke spray at least 20 feet in the air. This was the most exciting experience of the day! But we didn't stop the fun after that! We came back inside and finished up the day with some Dirt Pudding, showing the different layers of dirt in the ground, and then made Slime/ooblek/gak/goo. It was a fun ending to the day and everyone left with food colored hands and a bunch of slime to play with. :) The day was great! The adults had fun, the kids had fun, and we all learned about science! :)

Eliza enjoying her dirt pudding snack!

Diet Coke and Mentos Fun! :)

4-H Camp

Thursday went well and everyone had fun at their final day of classes. We had an extra long recreation time which gave the children time to spend with their friends on their final day of camp. 

Scott and I were in charge of Albemarle's bank for the children who wanted to buy items from the camp store. When about 90 hot, sweaty, tired children are waiting in line for their money to go buy ice cream, I learned the kids' names pretty fast. I was pretty impressed with the number of names I could put to faces as the kids came through the line every day. 

I had a lot of fun with the Albemarle/Charlottesville and Nelson teens, campers, and adults and was happy with the way camp went. Although we had to deal with a little rain for a few days, everyone still had fun and made new friends. I hope I can come back next year and spend another awesome week  at camp with the great 4-H youth from this county and Nelson. All the time, planning, and energy that went into planning camp was well worth it in the end when we looked outside and saw all the kids smiling and running around the rec field. The week was a success! :)

4-H Rainy Camp Day 3 7/9/14

Rain, rain go away...come again another day (after Friday, preferably). Last night a thunderstorm showed up during campfire (which turned into Ampfire in the Ampitheater because of the weather) and caused a little chaos when it came shower time. No one was allowed to take a shower because of the weather and everyone went straight to their cabins for bed. EVERYONE was quiet withing 30 minutes of lights out (10:45). This meant that campers could get up early this morning to head to the bathhouses for showers. I got up at 5:45 and headed to the showers before the campers got up at 6:30. Breakfast, classes, and lunch went as usual with a few classes relocated because of a short rain shower. After lunch it was pouring down rain so after the afternoon program with a K-9 Unit and a little pool time, everyone was sent to their cabins and had some cabin time, group meetings, and camp store before spending recreation time in their cabins. Nothing like a little cabin bonding on a rainy afternoon to form new friendships! Hopefully the rain will hold off until after the pool party which takes place tonight at 9pm after campfire! Some campers auditioned for the talent show and I am excited to watch the talent show tomorrow evening! Everyone is having a great few days so far and the number of homesick kids is steadily decreasing! Yay! :)

4-H Camp Day 2 7/8/14

Today we had wake up call at 6:50am. The adults had finally gone to bed a while after midnight which made it hard to wake up this morning. (I was up for 19 hours yesterday...) We started the day with a hearty breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs, biscuits, and jelly. Then had grounds clean up before a morning assembly. Today was the first day of classes so campers went to classes ranging from archery, riflery, animal science, cooking over the campfire, kayaking, duct tape 101, low ropes course, and more. After 4 classes we had tacos for lunch then a good assembly with State Trooper Dempsey, recreation times, and camp store. I did many cabin sweeps to make sure campers were at their classes and I'm about worn out from walking around the campground a million times. Dinner was turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, and warm chocolate chip cookies!, followed by flag lowering, mail call, cabin clean up, camp store/group meetings, campfire, and lights out! I'm ready for hopefully a good night's sleep! It's been pretty hot at Holiday Lake, but that does not seem to slow the campers down one bit! Everyone's having fun and doing well! :)

4-H Camp Day 1 7/7/14

Yesterday we all arrived safely at camp and had a great first day! Scott and I arrived at Holiday Lake before the buses and did a cabin check to make sure everything was in check. Nelson County campers arrived first and went to their cabins before Albemarle/Charlottesville campers got here. We had an opening assembly, health checks, recreation time, camp store, campfire, and a few other events before it was time for lights out! Not all the campers were ready to go to bed, but all the adults were ready to hit the hay! There were only a few homesick campers which made the evening a little easier!

My Fifth Week in the Office!

This is my fifth week in the office. MY FIFTH WEEK IN THE OFFICE?! That means I'm almost halfway through my internship here! That's crazy! This week has been a fun and kind of relaxing week. Karrin and I put together the final camp supplies and are ready to go to camp Monday. I helped Ian, the FCS agent with a cooking workshop on Tuesday, which basically gave me the opportunity to color with children and hold a baby for 2 hours. Working with kids is my favorite thing to do anyway, so everyone had fun! Many pictures were drawn, play-doh was rolled around, and food was prepared and enjoyed by all. :) The moms of the children made spicy eggplant pasta and caprese salad and the kids helped make bananas with peanut butter and granola. They LOVED those. I had fun and the kids all had fun that evening!

 
Coloring with the children during the cooking workshop

  

Wednesday I went with Karrin and Carrie to an Ag Day meeting and always learn more and more about the area when I hear about all the agriculture related businesses at these meetings. I meet new people and learn new things every time. After the meeting, the whole office celebrated Karrin and Carrie's birthdays with a Pie Day! We had many different types of delicious pie and had fun trying them all!

         Pie Day!!! :)

I have been catching up on some workshop planning and other random things in my free time this week! Tomorrow we all have all for the 4th of July!

We're Ready for Camp! Are you??

Since I started my internship on June 2nd, everyone has been talking about camp! Can you believe next week is camp?! Everyone at the extension office is excited about camp and Karrin, Ian, Morgan, Carrie, and I are ready to head to Holiday Lake for classes, camp songs, new friends, mosquitoes, and fun in the sun! I am excited to spend my second week at Holiday Lake. Where I am from, Rockingham County, we camp at the W.E. Skelton 4-H Center at Smith Mountain Lake, and I love it there. But after spending one week last summer at Holiday Lake with the Greene/Fluvanna camp, I have figured out how pretty Holiday Lake's 4-H Center is! The classes, programs, songs, and leaders should all be awesome this year and I am excited to sing camp songs again! We have everything packed up and ready to go at the office, all that's left is to wait until Monday and load up the buses! :) So much planning, time, and energy have gone into making this awesome camp week a reality and I can't wait to see how the week goes!

All packed up and ready for camp! 

Under the Sea Workshop

I spent the beginning of last week at a conference in Roanoke but I came to the office Thursday, ready to finalize the Under the Sea workshop I hosted Friday. We also did some last minute shopping Thursday. The participants that came on Friday ranged in age from 5-8 and were a great group to work with! We had lots of fun learning about sea creatures, making sea crafts, playing sea games, and making new friends. It was a full day but we enjoyed a few snack breaks and lunch with Finding Nemo. Everyone had fun and learned something at this great workshop! This week will be spent getting everything ready for camp! Camp starts Monday!! :)

A couple of the Egg Carton Crafts we did at the workshop

Virginia 4-H State Congress 2014

We arrived safely Monday and had a HOT first day of Congress. Opening assembly, district meetings, and the cookout were fun and a great start to State Congress. It was fun getting in the groove of Congress and seeing old friends from all over the state.
Tuesday started with a tasty Virginia Tech breakfast, some workshops, and then lunch. After lunch everyone went to different workshops, then ate dinner, went to district meetings, attended a carnival, went to the 2014 Congress photo (which included glowsticks!), then enjoyed an ice cream social sponsored by the Virginia 4-H All Stars. Since I am a 4-H All Star I got to help out again this year and was in charge of the whipped cream! Definitely the best job ever! I helped out with a Lifesmarts workshop Tuesday morning, which is a trivia question competition with lots of cool facts! I learned A LOT of new things while I was watching the youth delegates participate in a mock competition. Before we got to the workshop I successfully got all 15 of the delegates to follow me around the first floor of one of the buildings on Tech's campus 2 times, and asked directions twice before we got to the right building/floor/room. The teens were not impressed with my navigation skills. I also walked around to find the room I have to take teens to tomorrow morning at 8! I'm more prepared this time and am really glad I found it ahead of time. Today was a busy, hot day, but so far, these first 2 days of Congress have been fun, educational, and did I mention, hot!
Wednesday we had the college/department tour, I took the business school delegates to the proper room and got to help the teens create business plans and was a judge while they presented their product ideas. The coolest name one the groups came up with for their idea was "California Calzone Zone", however "Suncell" won with their idea of solar powered smart phone charging cases. After the business department tour everyone headed to a 100 years of extension celebration meal which was cool! All Star tapping was done on the Ag Quad after that, and then the awards/share the fun winners were announced before a dance began. Lots of changing outfits and running around was done that day!
We packed up the cars on Thursday, ate breakfast, and attended the closing ceremony before heading back to Charlottesville. Congress has always been my favorite summer activity and I am glad I was able to go once again! We all had fun and were ready for a nice nap when we got home! :)

My First Week

The first day of my internship was Monday, June 2nd. I fully expected a busy summer when I first applied for this internship, and it is obvious that this summer will be full of fun and adventures with Albemarle/Charlottesville 4-H!
I started off Monday, June 2nd with a lot of important internship paperwork, but when I FINALLY finished that, Karrin and I met with Ian and the Albemarle/Charlottesville FCS/ANR intern, Morgan, to discuss the upcoming presentation we had with Monticello High School AP Economics students on Friday. After the meeting I began researching the 5 day camp workshops I am in charge of this summer. The topics are Under the Sea for 5-8 year olds, Wacky Science for 5-8 year olds, Recycled Arts and Crafts for 5-8 year olds, Recycled Arts and Crafts for 9-13 year olds, and a STEM workshop for 9-13 year olds. Karrin and I will also have a hiking "workshop" in August but that one does not require tons of planning by me. I'm excited to be able to host these workshops and look forward to meeting the 4-H youth from the area!
After my first staff meeting, I spent Tuesday copying, organizing, and stapling together about 100 camp packets (about 13 pages in each packet...which equals 1300 pages total!) for the 4-H campers attending camp with us this summer. Karrin was at Holiday Lake so I took over her office and had a table, desk, the floor, and 6 chairs covered in papers! I cleaned it all up before she got back though! :)

Before: Papers to go into Each Camper's Packet 

After: 100ish Finished Packets

Wednesday I spent the day cleaning out the 4-H cabinet full of supplies from many different activities that had accumulated in the cabinet from previous years. The most interesting things I found in there were some old leaf stamps and a dog print stamp that were super sticky and falling apart. I also went to the Downtown Mall for the first time to attend a Main Street Ag Day Meeting. I met new people from around the city and learned about this event that is taking place in September and I am excited to come back in a few months and see how the whole thing turns out! There are going to be TONS of awesome exhibits and demonstrations and I am excited to see what I learn through working with this event and attending it!
Thursday, Karrin and I found a drawer full of old pictures, documents, and a journal from past 4-H agents. The journal dated back to 1922 and included the names of Bessie Dunn and many other women who greatly influenced Albemarle/Charlottesville 4-H. We set up a meeting with the historical society for June 11th to see if they can help us figure out ways to preserve and display the items we found. I can't wait to see what the Historical Society has to say about the things we found.
Friday was a fun day! Karrin, Ian, and I went to Monticello High School and talked to 3 different sections of AP Economics students about online banking and entrepreneurship. It was the students' last day of classes before exams and I was impressed with the level of interest they showed in what we talked about. I was able to include some student information and experience because I was familiar with the content we talked to them about. Friday evening we had a camp class sign up night. This was where campers came and filled out the sheet of camp classes they want to take at camp. I never realized how big of a deal camp classes are, but we had a good turnout and it made me even more excited for summer camp!
My first week was a success and I am excited to see what the rest of the summer will bring! :)

The New Intern :)

Hey guys! I'm Caroline, the 4-H summer intern for the Albemarle/Charlottesville Extension Office. I am a rising senior at Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, VA, pursuing an Elementary Education major, Spanish minor, Business Administration minor, and English as a Second Language endorsement. I grew up on a small farm with cows, horses, laying hens, a donkey, dogs, and cats in Rockingham County which is about an hour Northwest of Albemarle/Charlottesville. My parents own a small retail greenhouse business and I have grown up working with plants my whole life. I was a 4-H member and showed steers through the 4-H livestock program at the Rockingham County Fair for 6 years. I became a Rockingham County 4-H ambassador and teen leader and took advantage of 4-H Interstate Exchange and was able to travel to Montana and Minnesota through that. I have had opportunities to travel to DC and Richmond with 4-H leadership groups and have made many new 4-H friends through my travel experiences. I attended 4-H State Congress at Virginia Tech every year I was allowed to, I was a teen counselor with Rockingham County's 4-H Summer Camp at Smith Mountain Lake, and I was selected to attend National 4-H Congress in Atlanta, GA in 2011 as one of seven Virginia State Youth Representatives. I was on the 4-H Programming Committee and helped plan and host cooking and craft workshops for 4-H youth as well as help with Rockingham County's Relay for Life. I have held leadership positions in the Plains 4-H Club and the Rockingham 4-H Interstate Exchange Club and competed in Avian Bowl and Poultry Judging at the local, state, and national levels. I was tapped in as a 4-H All Star in 2012 and have found ways to stay involved in 4-H since I graduated high school in 2011. Last summer I was the summer intern at the Greene County Extension Office and this summer I am excited to meet all of the 4-Hers in Albermarle/Charlottesville. The first few days at the office have been fun and I cannot wait to have an awesome summer here!