Arlington County
Primary Program Area Focus: 4-H/Agriculture and Natural Resources/Family and Consumer Sciences
Describe the plans for this internship. (i.e. What specifically will the intern be doing?)
The intern in Arlington will have the opportunity to work with all three of our program areas: 4-H, Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS), and Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR). For 4-H, the intern will help out with three main areas: 4-H Junior Camp in July, the Arlington County Fair in August, and various summer day camp programming throughout the summer. For camp, the intern will help out with some of the registration process as well as actually coming along to camp as an adult supervisor if possible. In terms of the fair, the intern will help in organizing competition categories, registering 4-H competition entries, and generally supporting the 4-H competition framework at the fair. The intern will also provide program support to 4-H partners like Arlington community centers and schools through their summer camps and other programs. Specifically, it would be great to have the intern be familiar with technology (especially photography and robotics) as the 4-H agent has identified intense interest in these sorts of programs.
For FCS, the internship will include leading the Healthy Weights for Healthy Kids curriculum with students ages 7-14 enrolled in the Arlington County Summer Camp Extended Hours program. The curriculum includes six learning experiences (five to seven flexible lessons) that address the key issues related to childhood weight: foods, beverages, portion sizes, snacks, physical activity, and body image. With guidance from the FCS agents, the intern will implement this research-based program, which teaches healthful lifestyle behaviors to prevent excess weight gain. The intern will collect pre- and post-test assessments from students, deliver instructional material, and maintain a lesson log.
Also for FCS, the intern will work on helping to schedule and prepare materials for money management classes and will help to further develop VCE Arlington’s social media campaign for our financial education program by updating our blog, Twitter account, and Facebook page.
For ANR, the intern will help with planning for the county fair exhibit, coordinating the activities of Master Gardener volunteers who are helping four community gardens to get started, and help plan a fall urban agriculture workshop.
Describe the knowledge / skills that the intern is expected to gain from this experience.
While working with the 4-H program the intern will gain valuable experience through performance of these tasks. First, they will gain organizational experience on a large scale by helping to accommodate the large numbers of participants involved in camp and the county fair. They will also gain experience in volunteer management by interacting with volunteers and community partners both through in-county summer day camps and 4-H junior camp. They will also gain knowledge about a variety of techniques and strategies in managing group behavior in youth, as well as any subject matter they would learn in the course of delivering programs to groups.
While working with the FCS program the intern will learn to deliver an educational program based on the experiential learning model (learners process, reflect, and apply new information). The intern will learn to adapt lesson plans to meet community needs, and to utilize reliable instruments to evaluate behavior change. While working with the financial education program the intern will learn about topics in this area and will and will gain experience in leading a social media campaign for a community organization.
While working with the ANR program the intern will learn how to work with volunteers to organize large events and ongoing community initiatives.
How will the intern learn about the breadth of VCE and our various program areas?
The intern will learn that VCE is an expansive and broad organization through the wide array of groups 4-H works with as partners and the immense variety of subject material explored by different 4-H groups. Summer 4-H programming in particular really exemplifies the breadth of VCE because of the great demand for support by all sorts of organizations looking to fill the vacuum left in the lives of youth by the beginning of summer vacation.
Healthy Weights for Healthy Kids was designed by Extension Specialists, and reflects a collaboration between Extension, local residents, volunteers, private support, three levels of government, and universities.
The intern will also be exposed to all of the urban programs that we conduct in Arlington, including financial education for youth and adults, horticulture, urban agriculture, micro-business education, energy conservation, nutrition, and consumer education.