The Wonderful World of 4-H

Judging Cloverbud projects at the Vermilion County Fair.

         When I was younger, I was a member of 4-H. I have many fond memories of showing my pigs, creating my sewing projects with my grandma, and winning Superior awards at the IL State Fair. After being in 4-H for 10 years, I thought I knew everything there was to know about 4-H, however, when I started my internship with the Unit 13 Extension I realized I was wrong. This summer I was able to work during the fair season, which I loved. How many people can say they get paid and go to the fair? I thought I was pretty lucky!



"Splashing" Gibson City

I thought the summer time (fair time) would always be the busy part of my work at Extension, but the off season is just as busy. Throughout the past 10 weeks, I have had the chance to see what happens at the Extension office when it is not fair season. One of the projects that I am working on is the Splash Campaign. This campaign is to promote 4-H through the 4 counties Unit 13 covers (Champaign, Ford, Iroquois, and Vermilion counties). We "splash" the towns with 4-H signs and posters to attract community members. Along with the publicity we host Find Out Parties. These parties allow parents and children come and see what 4-H is all about and meet the Extension staff. Tonight is one of the Find Out Parties for Iroquois county.

I truly have enjoyed my experience at the University of Illinois Extension. It has opened my eyes to another career path that I would love to take if I do not like teaching. The work environment is always positive and my co-workers are great. I would not trade my experience for the world.

Unit 13 4-H Staff at the Federation Retreat at 4-H Memorial Camp

It's hard to believe that this semester is already halfway over. It's totally flown by, and when I sit back and look at all the things I've done so far it's really encouraging. I'm most exicted to complete my special project in which I'll get the opportunity to create lessons on grain bin safety (one of the topics we push here in the  RHFS department) that will be used in high schools across the area. I'll have to make not just the plans, but figure out activities, handouts, etc as well as create in depth instructor guides to help the teachers better implement the lesson in their classrooms. It's almost like I'll be getting a behind the scenes look at teaching and where some of the resources I'll be using in my future classroom will come from.

Overall, I'm so happy to have this opportunity and to see what hte rest of the semester holds!

Illinois Ag Leadership Interns: Illinois Ag Leadership Interns: Illinois Ag Leader...

I also added many new signs/ logos to my sign box as well as a new door. Here is examples of my new box, i repainted, redecorated, and added the new door window. On my company truck that AgriGold issued me.

Illinois Ag Leadership Interns: Illinois Ag Leadership Interns: Summer Interns Get...

I created 460 field signs. I was required to only put up 400.  I also put up 4 different plots here are an example pf a plot.

Illinois Ag Leadership Interns: Summer Interns Get to Work

I spent the summer doing many different things. from redoing my sign box, to making field signs, and grower researcher prospecting.

WBQA

I've spent the majority of my time with Wisconsin Beef Quality Assurance editing and putting together days and days of video footage that has been taken over the years from various farm visits.  I've been working on everything from current event tips and topics such as early and fence-line weaning, proper cattle handling techniques, and even virtual farm tours.

Below is an example of one I put together on the ease and importance of record keeping, and how one organic beef producer does it.

Farm Technology Days 2012

          One of the highlights of my internship with Wisconsin Beef Quality Assurance was participating in Farm Technology Days.  Farm Tech Days is a three-day outdoor event that showcases the latest improvements in production agriculture.  Each year, it is held in a different county in Wisconsin on a different host family farm.  Visitors get the opportunity to see and talk with more than 600 commercial and educational exhibitors in Tent City.  Exhibitors are there from all over the Midwest showcasing machinery, equipments, facilities, products, and service needs.  This year, Farm Tech Days was held in New Berlin, Wisconsin.  My fellow intern and I were in charge of the Holstein Feeder Display in the beef tent showcasing various different breeds of beef cattle.  It was great meeting people from all over the midwest and being able to answer their questions regarding the display.  It was also the first year the Holstein breed has been represented in the beef tent, which is huge for Wisconsin dairy producers who are starting to utilize their Holstein steers as feeders.

[This was our display in the beef tent prior to the grounds opening]

[Not only was their information about each breed in the beef tent, but there was also animals there representing!]

[Team USA!]

I have one more week here at the extension office! As I look back on all the miles and hours I have spent at the county fairs, camps, and meetings the one thing I can say I have improved upon is patience and photography skills. This summer I was the official picture taker at any event we had. I can know look back and see how much I have improved! This week I had the unique opportunity to be a dead body for our csi/forensics workshop. I never thought I could have so much fun. I helped the kids learn about different blood spatter types, blood types, fingerprinting, and helped them get into their detective mode. While the camp was fun, I have to buckle down and put the finishing touches on my project for next Tuesday the 14th. The program is now at capacity with t-shirts ordered. All I have left to do is order the food and arrive on the 14th with a shining face. I am excited to see how much the 4-H members will learn about local government!!



While I was looking through pictures and doing press releases, I made a video of all the moments captured during my time here at the extension office.

Illinois Corn: My Final Week

Good Morning my fellow Ag Leaders,

As my internship is wrapping up with only 2 more days left I am looking forward to be back on the Illinois campus.  Senior year awaits!! As the other intern and I are still wrapping up our final projects, we foresee to be done with all of our projects later this afternoon.

Reflecting on my internship I realize I have learned a lot through this experience.  Not only about Illinois Corn but also myself.  Haven this been my first full time work experience it was great to get a taste of what my future will look like in only a short year away (hopfully).  I would also say I am a corn aficionado.  

I had two blogs posted on the Illinois Corn website this last few weeks, and one was even featured.  You can check it out at The Beef with Meatless Mondays: Leah Wilkening.  This week we focused on agriculture promotional material through videos. As video creation is almost to obviously not my forte, I have learned a lot about how to utilize the program and am now a proficient mac user.  As the other intern and I have made what seems like hundreds of short video clips (32 to be exact) we continuously update the YouTube channel on the Illinois Corn website. 

This morning I created a short clip regarding the epic drought that has made Illinois corn something to talk about.  As it hasn’t been posted yet to our channel, I’m offering you an exclusive view, oh the excitement! 2012 Midwest Corn Drought

As I wrap up my time here at Illinois Corn Marketing Board, I am grateful for the experience and the opportunities it has opened to me.  Look forward to seeing ya'll this August.  

Monday July 30,2012

Good Afternoon!

I have been spending my summer keeping busy at the Macoupin/Jersey 4-H offices. I have been in charge of fairs, clean-ups, science and babysitting camps. I have even had the opportunity to be a judge and superintendent for some of the shows. My biggest project this summer is the program I have created for local youth to shadow the county board. I have taken this from an idea  and transformed it into a program. I have had to make flyer's, applications, t-shirts, radio and newspaper articles. I have cooped with the Macoupin County Board and have been working directly with their financial coordinator, Gabe Springer. I had the participants recognized during their county fair as well! The program will take flight on August 14th, 2012. Lately I have been helping with our science and technology camps. I have helped the members make ice cream, brush bots, and Lego robots. My favorite to help with was the homemade ice cream. I have enjoyed spending my summer at the office and it saddens me that the time is flying so quickly!!

Above are the ladies who have turned in applications for my shadowing program in August. They are from left to right: Victoria Buck, Shelby Albert, Meghan Wolff, and Michael Halpin.

Above are a few of the kids who participated in the science and technology camp last week in Jersey County. They are holding their homemade ice cream they made. From left to right: Elizabeth, Emma Brandon, Grace Sharich, and Emma Sharich.

Illinois Corn

Everything is going well here in Bloomington Il at the Illinois Corn Marketing Board.  We just finished up a fun filled weekend in Joliet doing ethanol promotions for NASCAR.  Here we got to use a t-shirt gun to throw Family Farmers t-shirts into the crowd and give out information about Illinois Corn as well as American ethanol.  I am also keeping busy creating a video for a video competition called Ethanol Rocks.  Updating social media, and other duties as assigned keep me busy too.  We also visit places such as AgRail where grain is hauled by train to collect media footage.  This picture here is me at One Earth Energy in Gibson City learning about distiller grains.  Internship is going well but also looking forward to school to start back up!

Tomorrow is set for our first harvest and these past three weeks have been filled with preparations. I have been communicating with the Central Illinois Foodbank to organize our donation. We met last week so that they could come by and see our farm and we could best determine how they can get the corn back to their warehouse. Both sides left the meeting with a clear understanding of what needed to be done. I have really enjoyed this new aspect of my job. Planning how the donation will work out and communicating with the Foodbank for the foundation has been interesting and I have learned a lot already and we have not even started to harvest.


Yesterday we tried out our picker and wagon contraption to see how it works. There are still a few glitches that we will address and try to troubleshoot during harvest, but the device did a pretty good job and the corn goes up the conveyor belt straight into the crates that we built. There is a lot of sweet corn to be harvested tomorrow and it will feed a lot of mouths. I am glad to finally begin harvesting because we have been preparing and discussing how it will all work out for so long that it will be nice to finally put our plan to the test. 


It is hard to believe that it is already July, though this heat is a clear indication that we are in the middle of the summer. The sweet corn that was planted after I got here is really hurting from this drought and if it continues any longer, there is not likely to be any sweet corn donated to the Foodbank late in the summer but we will see. 

Getting ready for harvest tomorrow, hope it runs smoothly and the corn gets to the people who need it.

Sweet corn a week from being harvested on the plant.

Ears of sweet corn showing signs of the drought - some of the kernels have not filled.

Sweet corn harvester attached to tractor with wagon and crates on the back

Hello everyone!

I have been extremely busy down here in Carlyle, IL so far this summer.  Currently I am up to my knees in new projects and data analysis.  My summer has been full of new learning experiences.  The Maschhoffs L.L.C. has created an internship program specifically designed for professional development by challenging me through rapid change and giving me the freedom to interact with other company executives outside of my department.  The photo above is a picture taken outside of the SPAM Hall of Fame located in Austin, MN.  The young lady in the picture was our volunteer for the trip that we were very thankful to have!  I was in Austin for a week working on a carcass quality study at a packing plant.  If any of you have the opportunity to branch out and get experiences in other sectors of the company you are with I highly recommend it. 

Take care guys

Hello!

http://www.agcareers.com/newsletters/agcareers_weekly.htm

     Listed above is the link to the newsletter in which my article was featured. This is one of the many duties associated with my internship. I have been very busy though with working on the 2012 Internship Benchmark Survey Part 1: Analysis Survey. I take the survey results from all of the interns of nine different agricultural companies and compile a report in which the HR department can dissect and determine how to refine their program, who to look for in future applicants, as well as see areas that are great and areas that could use improvement in their internship program as a whole. This is a really great eye-opening project and also very useful for our clients. I have really enjoyed reading and reporting on internships available in the agricultural industry. Also, we are preparing for the big event in August for the Human Resources Roundtable in Arkansas. This process has been rather low key since Marketing Manager, Erika Osmundson, has been in China and Australia over the past two weeks. However, we look forward to her homecoming and continued preparation for the event.

     Outside of work I have been having an interesting time working around not having a vehicle to drive and exploring the city of Ames. I have become an annoying college-town biker. This experience is very fun at times and others down right awful. My phone has fallen out of my pocket numerous times requiring me to awkwardly loop around the street and swoop it up without falling. This is not easy. Also, I had to bike home in the pouring rain the other day. I didn't even make it back to the hotel before I had to stop and take a break at a close apartment complex. The stop helped me to regain sight, and loose a few pounds of from the soaking wet jacket and laptop back. On the brighter side, I have ridden down some beautiful biking tails and visited downtown to see a little more of the new city. There are some really nice locally owned restaurants and cafes that I go to as often as I can. I look forward to skydiving and golfing this weekend and also getting my car back!

      Hello again! Today was a busy and fun-filled day for us with AgCareers.com. We took the majority of the day to go down to Des Moines, Iowa and walk around the 2012 World Pork Exposition. This was a first-time experience for me and fellow marketing associate Bonnie Johnson. Supervisor, Erika Osmundson, took us down to the Iowa State Fairgrounds where it was hosted to talk with clients as well as friends of the industry. We were able to see most of the indoor exposition exhibits, a few of the sow shows hosted by the National Pork Producers Council, and eat a pulled pork sandwich for lunch. It was a also really neat to see our sister company, Pig Champ (partially owned by Farms.com as well), display and inform many of their customers about some of the new software available. It was a great day to see a major trade show within the agriculture industry and share some laughs along the way!

   



Pictured to the left: myself, Erika, and Bonnie on the right; pictured below: the aisle that Pig Champ and the AgCareers.com banner was assigned.

          I am starting my third week here with AgCareers.com in the Farms.com branch office out of Ames, IA on the campus of Iowa State Univeristy in Research Park. I have been exposed to a number of initiatives within the company, as well as contributed personal input on the status of my current and ongoing projects at a recent staff meetingreporting directly to the President of AgCareers.com. Looking closer in to my daily work, after finishing training I was able to really nail down on some of the projects assigned. I have since completed a Competitive Pricing Analysis for our company to benchmark our standards against that of our competitors of major job boards as well as similar niche job boards. I also am currently writing and have writen articles to be featured in our e-newletter delivered via email across North America to our subscribers. In addition, I reached out and individually called all of the past attendees of the 2011 North American Ag HR Roundtable (an anual event AgCareers.com hosts to promote further education and resources to Ag-based HR associates across North America) to remind them of the upcoming deadline for earlybird registration for the 2012 North American Food and Ag HR Roundtable and offer support in any concers or questions they may have. I am also in the beginning stages compling data to report in the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Enrollment and Employment Outlook that AgCareers.com developed and reports on the status of enrollment and employment of our postsecondary agriculture students. Clearly I have been kept busy and can't wait to take advantage of further experiences that will be presented throughout the summer.

     Tomorrow I will be touring a couple hog farms in the central Iowa area. I can't wait to check out the similarities and differences of what we have in central Illinois!

Pictured below is my supervisor, Erika Osmundson, myself, and Bonnie Johnson.

-Mark McKown

I went and visited Ted Maddox of Warrensburg,
IL last week. Ted has 80 acres od sweet corn that he contract sells to over 74 WalMarts, County Markets, and Kroger stores. He is a local producer that has hit it "big" in the local foods and small farms group.  The picture to the left is of his trailer he uses to deliver all of his sweet corn produce. In the picture to the right, he is explaing the twine system his son did to keepthe tomato plants off the ground.  Aside from the 80 acres of sweet corn, Ted is trying his way through growing a variety of other vegetables like tomatos, onions and peppers.
                                                            (CW 6/4/12)

Two weeks into the internship and I have been having a lot of fun and learning so much. Growing up in a Chicago suburb, I have not had too much exposure to farming practices. I have spent a good deal of time on my grandparents farm, but I never ran any equipment. So these first two weeks brought many new experiences. I learned to drive different tractors and mowers. I also got to ride on a tractor while it was planting sweet corn and see how the GPS and auto steer work. This particular experience was really interesting and it was cool to see all the different things that are monitored when planting. Getting to ride on these tractors and learn how to do things while watching those who are really experienced is fun because they know a ton and can answer all of my questions. I have already learned so much and I am very excited for what the rest of this summer will bring.

This is a picture of the sweet corn planting contraption that I got to ride on.

Just another busy day at the office...

Well...today is a very busy day for me. I am planning on having lunch with Tim Stock (Farm Bureau) to discuss Farm Bureau  in general, job opportunities and what I may like interms of a career path within Farm Bureau.  After that, I am goingto have a radio interview with Jared White.  He just wants some background information, why and how I got this internship and what it all entails.  Also, totalk briefly about my major and U of I. Later on this afternoon, Vasudha Pinnamaraju (Sustainable Decatur) is coming in to talk with Paul (one of my supervisors) and I about what the program does for those involved with local foods and small farms in Macon County. Busy, busy day!! I like my job so far, the people are great to work with and I have learned so much in just a weekand 2 days :).  
                                                                               CW (05/23/12)

Summer Interns Get to Work

University of Illinois students in Agricultural Education are completing professional internships over the summer. These students will be gaining invaluable real-world experience, earning academic credit, and taking home a paycheck. The internship program is a required component for students in the Agricultural Leadership Education concentration. Students typically complete the internship between their junior and senior years. This year our students have been placed in paid internships in top agricultural organizations across the Midwest, and we are proud of them. Our Ag Ed curriculum stresses experiential learning, and the professional internship is the cornerstone in our program. Students this summer will get a chance not only to explore careers but also to put their academic training into practice, offering program development, research, sales, and leadership to premier workplaces in the ag industry. This professional experience is part of what gives our U of I students a competitive advantage when it comes to landing a job after graduation. 

Students completing professional internships this summer who are enrolled in AgEd 293 (Ag Leadership Internship) include: 

Caitlin Chrzanowski
University of Illinois Extension, Unit 8 (Bureau, LaSalle, Marshall and Putnam Counties, IL)

Jacob Firkins
AgriGold (St. Joseph, IL)

Sarah Fritz
University of Wisconsin Extension - Beef Quality Assurance Program (Madison, WI)

Dillon Garver
The Maschhoffs (Carlyle, IL)

Caroline Hoff
The Howard G. Buffet Foundation (Decatur, IL)

Mark McKown
AgCareers.com (Ames, IA)

Carly Wesner
University of Illinois Extension, Unit 17 (DeWitt, Macon, and Piatt Counties, IL)

Leah Wilkening
Illinois Corn Marketing Board (Bloomington, IL)

Stay tuned for news from the interns about their amazing experiences!

- Dr. Kari Keating, Internship Coordinator

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