A Summer Outside of My Comfort Zone

My internship experience this summer has been interesting to say the least. Like many of my fellow AgEd interns I was lucky enough to land an internship with University Extension, specifically Unit 22 which covers Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair counties in Southwestern Illinois. See, I'm the type of person that doesn't like to stay in one place too long, so I'm always looking for new ways to go places and even push myself outside of my comfort zone. Looking back on what I have gone through this summer, I sometimes wonder if this was too much outside of my comfort zone though. I've found myself getting into a routine of work, gym, sleep, repeat; and it's starting to take a toll on me. Being three hours away from both home and campus has made it almost exhausting to travel to see my close friends and family.

It's no mystery that it's gotten somewhat lonely down here in Waterloo. Don't get me wrong, the family I live with is wonderful, and I've had nothing but great experiences, but it gets challenging to keep pushing through an internship when I know hardly anyone in town, and I've had a lot of personal time to evaluate everything.

Moving along, the experiences that I've had down here with Unit 22 Extension have been nothing short of eye-opening and educational for me. I've done everything in the office from the typical intern tasks of making copies, to leading a small group of 4-H parents and youth to build an entire parade float. I've helped organize parts of the office that haven't had that much attention put on them in probably five years, I've helped do programming out on the Air Force Base which is interesting in itself because they have unrealistic standards to which you can discipline the youth (you can't even tell the child that they need to pay better attention without having to worry about getting yourself in trouble). I've spent a lot of time diving into a new found interest of what could hardly be called graphic design, and I've even been lucky enough to sit in on a Latino Family Commission Meeting to learn how to better go about reaching those in the Latino communities in the area.

The office I work out of has some truly amazing people with whom I'm happy and extremely honored to be able to spend so much time with. If I ever have a question, someone always has an answer. They are an outstandingly motivated team that only wishes the best for their county and the entire unit. They've been a huge support system for me this summer. When I sat down with Pam (County Director), Ashley (4-H youth educator), and Nora (Community and Economic Educator), before I started, I was able to get a feel for what they needed as an independent project. Nora explained that the local businesses have recently noticed that those starting to get into the "working age" are lacking customer service skills that the past generations have succeeded in. I finally saw my opening.

Once I started my internship I started working on an outline for my independent project. I chose something that has always truly interested me, and that is extremely important in today's world. I devised a workshop called, "It's Who You Know, Not What You Know," which covered networking with subtle touches on effective communication, customer service, and email etiquette. I was so excited to finally be able to educate youth in an area that isn't taught much anymore in the typical school setting. These subjects are important to know whether you're going to college or out into the real world right after high school, and the earlier you learn them the better. I had to learn the hard way about these subjects when I got to college, so I was thrilled to be able to help the youth of Unit 22 become more educated in these areas.

Initially I was supposed to do three of my proposed workshops, one in each county. But, time started dwindling and I was never able to meet with the correct person in St. Clair county, so I had to scrap the workshop. This was supposed to be my way of trying to help with our Latino initiative. I had translated everything from the sign-up sheet to the flyer just so that I could help parents in the community better understand what their kids were signing up for. I took this with a grain of salt, and I kept pushing on with my other two workshops.

Time ran down and I had done everything I could to promote my workshops. I had information sent out to all of the 4-H leaders, I had it posted on the video board at the local library, and I had flyers up around the town, but only a few youth signed up. That was that. I had to scrap my first attempt at an independent project. I felt somewhat lost. This was supposed to be a great opportunity for these kids. Why wouldn't they take it? Ashley reminded me though that summer programming is one of the last things teenagers want to do these days, so I got over the frustration and anxiety of my first attempt and reassembled myself.

I decided to ask the 4-H program coordinators what they thought would be a good program to hold, and they both suggested doing a workshop for children in the Cloverbuds age group of 5-8. This would be for those that are going to be in Cloverbuds and those that had just graduated from the program. So, I set out to get a whole new outline and program set up and into place. The week following my failed attempt at Independent Project 1 I had my entire Independent Project 2 created, outlined, and sent off for advertising. Now I'm looking at doing a Science Program for 5-8 year olds focusing on "Exploring Everyday Nature." We're going to explore water and land through activities like "Lakes in a Bottle" (a fun little spin off of "Oceans in a Bottle"), dirt pudding cups where we will learn about the different layers of soil, and also a "Will it Sink or Will it Float" game which will help tie everything that we learned about previously in the evening together.

My latest attempt at my Independent Project. Exploring Everyday Nature.

This next chapter of my internship is definitely going to be interesting and challenging. I don't have a background in teaching children, and I've never really had an interest in pursuing a career in anything but Adult Education, so this will be a learning experience for everyone, myself included. I don't doubt that I can do this, and do it well, it's just going to be somewhat foreign to me, and I'm not sure how to mentally prepare for such an event.

As for right now, I'm taking the days as they come, and I'm looking forward to finally being able to do my Independent Project while my internship slowly comes to close. Tomorrow the Monroe County Fair starts, and with that, the crazy show times start. I don't have any type of fair/showing background, so I'm not quite sure what I'm getting into, but I do know the importance this fair means to the community, so I hope help aid in the organizational fun during this time. 

This summer has proven to be a constructive effort in showing me what I can and want to do with my life in the next few years. Pushing myself outside of my comfort zone is the only way for me to figure out what I succeed at and what I need to work harder at in this line of work. I'm extremely thankful for everything I have  been able to do this summer, and I look forward to reporting back at the end of my time down here at Unit 22 Extension.