Views from VanDeWalle

The next several articles I will be sharing will focus on the 4-H Thrive Model which focuses to ensure high quality 4-H programs for youth and positive youth development. In the 4-H Thriving Model this process of positive youth development is described by seven indicators of thriving: openness to challenge and discover, growth mindset, hopeful purpose, pro-social orientation, transcendent awareness, positive emotionality and self-regulation though goal setting and management. This first article focuses on volunteers which are the heart to a high quality 4-H program.

4-H Volunteers Help Youth Thrive   

Volunteers have been the long-time champions for the 4-H program, delivering 4-H experiences to youth across the nation for decades. Volunteers bring invaluable skills and resources to their role, dedicating hours to teaching youth new skills and helping them grow as leaders. It is certainly not difficult to visibly see a volunteer’s impact in this way.  

However, there are many other ways in which volunteers help youth thrive that are not as easy to visibly see. Volunteers, specifically 4-H club leaders, undoubtedly are a key part of the 4-H program and the impact on youth for years to come. But, how? This happens through developmental relationships, which are close connections through which young people discover who they are, cultivate abilities to shape their own lives and learn how to engage with and contribute to the world around them.   

Developmental relationships between youth and adults are important aspect of the 4-H program. Research shows that the relational quality between the 4-H leader, volunteer and member is connected to positive youth development. 4-H volunteers foster a developmental relationship with youth when they express care, challenge growth, provide, support, share power and expand possibilities.  

Some of the ways 4-H volunteers build a developmental relationship with youth is through a variety of visible approaches. Examples include, but are not limited to, showing youth they enjoyed spending time together, making youth feel known and valued, being someone youth can trust and praising youth for their efforts and achievements. Implementing these approaches to having a developmental relationship with youth encourages youth to know their 4-H club leader cares about them and their success.  

Healthy developmental relationships grow over time to move past a mainly adult-driven relationship to shifting the power to the youth. In addition, as the relationship between the 4-H leader and the youth continues to grow and foster a deeper connection, the impact on the youth deepens as well.  

Thank you, 4-H volunteers, for creating 4-H experiences for youth to experience new skills and helping them grow as leaders, and ultimately finding their spark in life!  

This article was written by Jill Goedeken, Nebraska Extension Educator.

Since early 2020 our world has changed greatly. You may find yourself reaching out to engage with youth virtually more than you ever thought you would. As many of you enter the world of online learning and meetings it is important to consider the safety and security of your participants. Remember to consider virtual programming in the same lens that you would for in-person programming. It is just as important to make participants feel safe and inclusive as they did when meeting in person.

As you prepare for your virtual learning experience think about the following. 

• Use passwords and/or waiting rooms to protect from unwanted participants.
• No one-on-one interactions. Have a second adult managing or participating in the virtual experience.
• Notify parents that you will be using virtual platforms to connect with their child.
• Keep conversational, professional, and focused on educational or meeting purposes.
• Make sure your background is appropriate for audience.
• Watch for outside party connections and be prepared to remove or close out of learning experience, i.e. hackers, unintended participants
• Be aware of online capabilities of your club members. Do they ALL have access to technology? Do they know how to use technology safely?
• Do not make video a requirement. Parents/Guardians may not be comfortable allowing video conferencing.
• Create some ground rules for usage and participation in virtual environments.

It is also a good idea to remind participants how they can keep themselves safe. 

• Do not provide identifiable details such as address, school, full names.
• Remind that photos and videos shared online always have the potential for becoming a permanent part of history.
• Never share passwords or links to join virtual experience with others.
• Do not respond to messages that make you feel bullied, threatened, or uncomfortable.
• Never post or say anything that could hurt others.
• Be careful of what you are showing in the background that might identify where you are. This is especially important if meeting with people you may not know.

It is just as important to keep a safe online learning environment as it is to keep youth engaged by creating educational, active, and fun learning experiences. 

(This article was written by Kimberly Cook, Nebraska Extension Educator.)

Adapting and connecting with different generations takes practice. The Farmers & Ranchers College, in partnership with the Nebraska Women in Agriculture Program, will host Becky Fouard to discuss this important topic. Join us at 5:30 p.m. at the Geneva Public Library in Geneva, NE.

One of the coolest parts about being in the professional space is the ability to work with people from all different generations and life stages. With that said, working with people who grew up in different circumstances and with different influences can cause differences in how we see the world, what motivates us, and how we operate. In this presentation, we will focus on a general understanding of the differences between key generations in the workplace today, and how to lead and engage with each of these generations for a thriving organization and business relationships. Registration is free but appreciated for prep purposes.

About the speaker

Becky Fouard grew up on a small farm in Kansas, and through 4-H and FFA found her passion for people, agriculture, and leadership. After graduating from Kansas State University in Agricultural Communications and journalism, with a minor in leadership, Becky stepped into an array of roles that eventually took her to Indianapolis Indiana.

Her first role out of college was with the Kansas State Department of Agriculture and focused on branding and marketing local products in the state as well as globally. Becky then took a role with Elanco Animal Health in 2013 in marketing. Since then, Becky has held roles in global marketing, corporate communications, corporate social responsibility, and today she leads two key leadership programs with Elanco through the Global Learning and Development team.

While Becky works at Elanco during the day, she also has two other key passions she puts effort towards. Becky acts as a life coach and leadership consultant through her On The Rise Group business, with her partner Ashleyne Seitz, and also co-owns a CrossFit gym with her husband in Indianapolis (M4G CrossFit). At the heart of everything Becky does is the passion and drive to help others live an authentic, fulfilled, and healthy life.  

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension has been sharing the latest information on crop production and research through a resource known as CropWatch since 1992. CropWatch originally started as a printed newsletter, but the newsletter could only be released a few times per season because of the logistics of printing and mailing new issues.

Katy Moore, a communications specialist with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said that one of the missions of CropWatch is to share timely and relevant information with agricultural producers throughout the state. As such, the expansion of the internet was viewed as a tremendous opportunity, “CropWatch’s website was launched in 1996 to provide easier access so that farmers across the entire state could benefit from CropWatch’s resources,” said Moore.

While the website had the benefit of being easier to access, it also allowed for sharing information faster, “When farmers are dealing with a new or unknown crop issue, they need fast answers,” explained Moore, “Our goal is also to be as timely as possible.” Currently, the CropWatch website publishes a new issue of articles every week during the cropping season and shifts to every two weeks during the winter months.

Since its initial launch, the way that many consume information has changed. While reading articles is still an important way that many keep up with the latest information, many people now get their news from videos, podcasts, and social media. In fact, research from the Pew Research Center has shown that 23% of people at least sometimes get their news from podcasts.

To stay relevant, the university launched the Nebraska CropWatch Podcast in 2018. Now starting its fifth season, the podcast aims to highlight articles published on the website in audio form in a bi-weekly format. The host of the podcast, Nate Dorsey, interviews the authors of recent articles, often allowing them to share more information and stories than could be included in the original articles. “I try to keep the interviews as conversational as possible,” said Dorsey, “this hopefully makes the information and guests more relatable and easier to listen to.”

Podcasts are particularly useful in agriculture, said Dorsey, “Farmers and others in the agriculture industry spend a lot of time behind the windshield”, he noted, “whether that’s driving a truck or a tractor, podcasts are a great way to learn and stay up-to-date while working on other tasks.” Dorsey hopes that the podcast will be a valuable source of information to producers and others throughout the state.

 The Nebraska CropWatch Podcast can be found on most major podcast platforms, such as Apple’s Podcasts app, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and many others. A suggested best practice is to search for a show, in this case the Nebraska CropWatch Podcast, in your preferred application and click the subscribe or follow show button. This way, as new content is released, you can be notified of new episodes and have them download automatically to your device. Then, no matter where you are or what you’re working on, you can learn about the latest Nebraska crop production information.

If you are like many nearly half of the American population, you probably have a New Year’s Resolution set for this year, while 38% of Americans absolutely never make New Year’s Resolution according to research by University of Scranton, 2016. A majority of those resolutions are self-improvement or education related resolutions (47%), weight related (38%), money related (34%) or relationship related (31%).  University of Southern California’s John Monterosso who is an expert on psychology and neuroscience of self-control offers insight on how to achieve setting those resolutions.

Monterosso suggests thinking of a resolution as a special kind of plan and visualizing your future-self. If you have already made that resolution or still working to tweak it, he suggested keeping the following in mind:

• Failed resolutions are not harmless. Most people don’t like to fail; in fact, it hurts our confidence and can actually lead to worse behavior. Keeping this in mind and accepting the fact that one might not have accomplished all that was planned is important. If you get off track, you can always start again and don’t have to wait until a new year.
• Resolutions work by linking single decisions to a bigger picture. For example, if you have a goal of quitting smoking or eating unhealthy foods and let a craving lead to poor decisions, you might think, “it’s just one cigarette or just one meal of fried foods” which may or may not lead to the continuation of a bad habit. If one takes a resolution seriously, think about the health consequences and the potential “relapse” that could occur.
• Consider being less ambitious in your resolutions. We tend to be overly confident when making a resolution and think we can change our behavior overnight. While it is good to be confident with your goals, be careful not to make overly ambitious goals. For example, if you plan to work out one hour/day every day of the week and have an already packed life with a career, community obligations and a family, consider starting at 20 minutes/day and work up to more minutes if time allows. Setting a good resolution requires being realistic.
• Resolutions should not be vague. If you set a resolution of “eating healthier.”  What does that mean?  Does it mean drinking 64 oz. of water/day?  Does it mean to include a fruit or vegetable at every meal?  Write down a SMART goal that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-based.
• The New Year is a fresh start. Setting resolutions/goals at the first of the year helps us “clean the slate” and put past failures away. It gives us a sense of confidence and optimism. Capitalize on that.
• Even successful resolutions can be mistakes. If you set restrict your diet to the point of starvation or over-exercise to the point of hurting yourself, you must be able to adapt, know yourself and use common sense and wisdom to correct the resolution.

In summary, Monterosso suggests that done correctly, “resolutions play a role in great human achievements.”

Extension’s Help with Resolutions
As stated above, almost half of resolutions made include education or self-improvement. If you need any educational resources or materials on nearly any subject, Extension has resources. Whether it is information on a website, talking with an extension professional, utilizing an app from your smart phone, attending a face-to-face program, participation in a webinar or many other avenues, Extension works to solve complex problems for clients. If you haven’t been to Extension’s website recently, I encourage you to go to extension.unl.edu. There you will find an abundance of resources on topics such as food, nutrition and health, cropping & water systems, community vitality, community environment, learning child, beef systems and 4-H youth development. Consider attending a program or utilizing a resource to help you achieve a resolution or goal you may have.

For a list of extension programs in the area, visit our websites at fillmore.unl.edu or clay.unl.edu or call your local extension office.