MSU Extension 4-H Volunteering & Mentoring

Good afternoon. I would like to welcome you to this Michigan 4-H volunteer webinar on Beyond Ready, Equipping Youth with Skills for Life. We're going to talk about some of the things that you can do as a 4-H volunteer to help prepare youth for skills for life. I am Christine Heverly. I'm an Extension Educator in the Children and Youth Institute and a Co-Lead for Extension Volunteer Management, and I am based in Clinton County. And I will let our Michigan 4-H state leader, Jody Schultz, give a quick introduction, who is leading the majority of the webinar. Good afternoon. Thanks for having me. I'm Jody Schultz. I'm the 4-H state leader and co-director of the Children and Youth Institute at MSU Extension. And today I am coming to you from my office in Bay County. Sometimes you'll find me on campus, but today in Bay County. So thank you. Thanks for having me. Welcome. And we are excited for everyone to be with us today. As we look, as in always, Michigan State University believes in the principles of diversity about creating welcoming environments where everyone feels safe and they belong and have a voice. We know that human differences enrich our lives, work, and community. We embrace our responsibility to be a resource for all and are committed to providing programs to all segments of our community. It's also important to understand the long-standing history and legacy of colonialism that has brought us all to reside in the land and seek to understand our place within that history. The land acknowledgement on the screen is one step in that process. I am going to, into the chat, put a quick, short demographic survey. I'm asking if you wouldn't mind, please, completing that. That helps us show how we are meeting the needs of MSU, meeting the needs of Michigan across the state of Michigan. So if you are attending this webinar not as a MSU Extension employee, please take a moment to complete the quick demographic survey so we can showcase how we are meeting those needs. All right. Christy, you ready for me? I am ready. All right. Well, I want to just say thank you again for having me to come and speak with all of you. I want to kick us off officially with saying happy National 4-H Week. This is a very exciting week. There's a lot going on across the state of Michigan as well as nationally around 4-H and celebrating 4-H. So please, please, if you aren't sure what's going on locally in your county with celebrating National 4 -H Week, please get in contact with your program coordinator right away because I am sure that they have a lot of exciting opportunities to celebrate, including taking pictures. We're in green today and posting that on social media. Like I said, if you aren't sure what I'm talking about, get in touch with your program coordinator because there's a lot going on and you do not want to miss out on the excitement. So I want to kick us off today with a welcome, of course, and an icebreaker. So to kick us off, I want to ask if you had a superpower that's a life skill that you could pass on to every child that you reach when you volunteer, what would that be and why? just think about any superpower. I don't want you to think of things about being invisible or reading people's minds or anything like that. I want you to think about life skills. So Chris, go to the next slide for me there. And I want to jog your thoughts about life skills. So again, if you had a superpower life skill that you could pass on to any child that you reach when you volunteer, what would it be and why? Go ahead and put that into the chat. And what I have up here on the screen is our targeting life skills model. And this is the life skills model that we use in 4-H all the time to talk about the life skills that kids gain by being a part of our organization. So here I'm just going to read these out loud for those in the recording. You can't see what's being written in the chat. So the ability to relate to others and communicate effectively. That's awesome. Confidence so that they can try anything and believe that they are capable of it. Critical thinking or problem solving. Yeah, critical thinking. It helps them think through new project areas and to see what's real. Imagination fosters creativity and development. stress management so they can become a healthy balanced adult while managing their their life and all that comes with it oh these are amazing superpowers i confidence and and self-discipline self-awareness these are fantastic superpowers and i wish for that for all of us as well so we don't it's why do you think that i'm even asking us to think about these these skills than these life skills. It's because life skills aren't really superpowers. They're real and they're obtainable. We see them right here on the screen. Skills aren't something that we just gain and then we're done, right? It's something that we need to continually be working at because it's the only thing that's constant is change. We know that. So take any one of the life skills and then you think about yourself from five or ten years ago. What were you like then? Are you the same as now? Did you need the same skills that you need now? Probably not. But then you think about the skills that you're going to need to develop, even as us as adults, or what we're going to need to focus on in the next five or ten years, and that's really hard, even as adults. So think about what that's like for kids, trying to understand what skills they need, how they need to develop them, And that's why our volunteers are so incredibly important, because some of this we have insight on, right? We've been there and we've done things that that these kids have have yet to experience. And so we understand the importance of these life skills and sharing that information with them. These are all fantastic life skill superpowers. And these are all things that as volunteers and as staff, you're really working with kids on every single day. So thank you for that. Another one popped in, teaching, the ability to give instruction on every level and capability. Absolutely. So as we think about all of this and how we're helping youth become beyond ready, we have to ground it in what 4-H is all about. We have to ground it in helping youth best thrive. We have to think about not having them succeed just today, but how they can grow into capable and confident and capable adults. This is where we want them to find those sparks, those things that get them excited, where you see that light bulb go off. We want to have them that sense of belonging. When they start to have that, then they can start to develop some of those life skills and build on those skills and practice the ones that they want to, they need to grow it. We want to have where they have positive developmental relationships so that we encourage that piece. We give them those focus. We help them. We give them those questions to make them think harder. We give them those pieces to help them push them in the skills they need to grow. And we want them to be engaged. We want them to have that ability that they're getting to make choices and decisions and having a true voice within the program so that those really help them grow. And as we do all those pieces, we are not just having youth thrive, but we're increasing their level of engagement. We're giving them that positive youth development experience, and we're helping them be beyond ready for whatever they're going to do in the future. It helps them feel like they'll have this confidence, the skills, the character that they need to succeed in whatever choices they do so that they're ready for their future. It could be college. It could be a career path. It could be leadership in their community. Youth who find a spark, have a belonging, have developmental relationships and engagement are more likely to be resilient, motivated, and equipped to take on life's next challenges. So we have to embed these in all of our forages experiences that we do with youth. And it starts with finding their spark. So we have to find that inner light, interest, passion, or skill that gives a young person energy and purpose. It gives them a reason to grow, to keep learning, to overcome their obstacles, and it helps them identify. And as volunteers, we have to help young people identify and explore their sparks. It's one of the most powerful things that we can do to help them become beyond ready for their future. Find that thing that gets them going and being super excited. And we, when we do all those things and we find those sparks, we do develop those skills that they're going to need for life. All of those life skills on the targeted life skills model, they can develop it through whatever their interest, their passion, their spark is. Absolutely. So I want you to think of a time when young people didn't need 4-H. Yep. Go ahead and think of a time that, that that's happened, that 4-H wasn't needed in a child's life from over a hundred years ago to right now, right today. It doesn't exist, right? I've often said, tell me about a child, like literally go ahead and describe them, someone who doesn't need 4-H. Tell me about a child who can't benefit from a relationship with a caring adult, or tell me about a child that has too many caring adults around them and supporting them. What about a child or even an adult that's all done with their life skills? They have all of them, all of those life skills are on that targeting life skill model. Check the box. We're all done, right? No, of course not. That's silly. And we know that those things don't exist. What we do know is that we're humans and we're ever evolving. And so is the world around us. We often hear it described as a complex and changing world. Both things are often true at the exact same time. So what I want you to do now is put into the chat one thing that's a challenge for kids today that was not a challenge when you were a child? What's one thing that's a challenge for kids today that was not a challenge when you were a child? Yeah, these pop in pretty quick here. Social media and the use of technology. Cell phones. Yeah, electronics. Another electronics. Social media. Parents having time to take us places. Cyberbullying. Oh my goodness. All of those things absolutely and so you can see up here on the screen young people need us now they've always needed 4-h because the world is complex it's changing things are always moving we know that you've heard about beyond ready it's a simple connection to the work that we're already doing in 4-h positive youth development the experiential learning model and especially those life skills. Kids needed those skills 100 years ago, they needed them 50 years ago, and they absolutely need those skills today. Those are the same skills, even though the world around us and the things that youth are experiencing today are different than the things that we may have experienced when we were their age. Yeah, another one that popped into the chat is isolation. Absolutely. Chris, next slide. Thanks. So young people here, we can see on the screen, young people are facing unprecedented challenges in today's world, and it's changing faster than ever. Now, let me be clear about this. It's not children that are a problem. We're not solving the problem of things that are deficits with children, right? The environment is the challenge. It's the world around us continues to change. The world around us continues to evolve. And that's what we're seeing and experiencing right here. What we know is that employers are saying things to us like focus less on traditional school subjects and more on real world skills like analytical thinking, creative thinking, flexibility, and adaptability. They say that if we can send them employees with those types of skills, that they can train them on any of those necessary technical skills. What we know is that youth ages 5 to 19, which is a combination of Gen Z and Gen A, is the largest generation right now. It's 72 million kids. And what we're seeing in the data is that they're reporting significant levels of loneliness and feelings, goes along with the comment in the chat about isolation. and feelings of failing with the lack of confidence and contentment. This is also paired with academic challenges, with one-third of youth chronically absent from school, missing 10 % or more of their school year, and math and reading scores with the largest decreases in 50 years. It's really a two -pronged approach that we have going on here. It's social-emotional well-being as well as academic, and pair that with how fast the world is changing and the considerable number of pathways forward for youth. Goodness, we have two-year college, we have four -year college, we have apprenticeship programs, we have work, we have military. There's all sorts of options. Gosh, no wonder that youth are reporting that they're feeling so incredibly overwhelmed. But what can we do? We need to help them prepare this generation to be ready actually beyond ready so our vision here with beyond ready and the work that we do in 4-h is to help these youth become healthy productive and engaged not just into the future but right now whether they're clover buds whether they're in sixth grade whether they're preparing to graduate from high school whatever stage they're in we want to help them through our 4 -H programs to become healthy, productive, and engaged as they move forward. So you might be thinking, why 4 -H? Well, because parents can't do it alone. And schools can't do it alone either. Faith-based organizations, after-school programs, and sports can't do it alone either. So we're often asked in 4-H, what sets us apart from any other youth serving organization? And here's the answer. I have four topics for you. One is positive youth development. We do positive youth development unlike any other youth serving organization. We focus on youth's assets and not their deficits. We aren't here to solve the problems for kids. We're here to give them the skills to be able to solve the problems alongside of us. Two, we do our work through trained, trusted, and caring adult volunteers. It's about mutual respect, where youth voice drives the direction of our programs, our events, and our activities. Third, we have the largest network in the state, in the nation, and in the world. We have over 6 million youth nationally that are participating in 4-H, with a goal of 10 million youth by the year of 2030. And four, the impact of 4-H isn't just something we talk about it's not just something we make up and we put on screens and we share the impact of 4-H has been proven through longitudinal youth development research it really takes all of us working together to help youth find their spark gain that sense of belonging and develop life skills that help them on their on their way as they are becoming healthy productive, and engaged. So I want to talk about a little bit of these statistics. I love stats. Don't worry if you're not a stats person. I'm not going to hang on to this for too long, but I do want to share a little bit about this longitudinal impact study that I had referenced just a moment ago. So two decades of research with Tufts University showed us that regardless of a youth's gender, regardless of their race or their socioeconomic background, 4-Hers are three times more likely to give back to their community. They're two times more likely to go on to careers in STEM, and they're also two times more likely to make healthy choices. Now, who can't get on board with that? We also wanted to learn if this impact would hold true heading into adulthood. could. So we reconnected with those youth 10 years later, and we found that 4-H has long-lasting impact. For many of you, you can even reflect on yourself. If you were a 4-H-er and now you're a volunteer, or if you were a 4-H-er and now a staff member, probably some of this or a lot of this holds true as well. They found that 10 years later, the impact is three times more likely to participate in community service. They're two times more likely to report living with intentionality and with purpose, and two times more likely of having the goal of being a leader. And a leader can mean a lot of different things. So this is really exciting for us to be able to look at this 4-H impact and know that it works. It's not just now, but it's long-term into the future and we're so thankful for that next slide please yeah so here we can say we can see that a continuation of some of this data shows through Tufts University that today's 4-H youth are four times more likely to make a positive contribution to their communities every community can benefit from 4-H being a part of it and having youth participating two times more likely to participate in in and out of school time science programs and again making healthier choices. We have so many things, so many pressures that are coming up against our kids that we didn't necessarily have in the same way back when we were youth growing up, and it's important for them to consider those healthy choices and know that there's caring adults who want to support them as they're making those healthy choices. Here we also get reports about them feeling competent. That was part of what we talked about in the chat earlier with our superpowers. And then two times more likely to feel positive about their well-being. These are all things that we can most certainly get on board with. So what we know is that these things don't happen by accident. It's very intentional. And we've talked about that in 4-H for many, many years, the intentionality. For a long time, we've been asking volunteers to be intentional about their plans for when youth are gathered, and do a do, reflect, and apply method. This is our experiential learning model, right? We've talked about this for a long time, and if it's new to you, we're going to give a little bit of walkthrough, right? So we perform activities. We do things, right? We don't just read about them in books. We actually get hands -on. We learn by doing, and we do things. We have experiences through our clubs, camps, school enrichment, virtual programs, and special interest clubs. And then we share and we process what happened during the activity, considering our reactions, our observations, and intentionally considering what happened. That's our reflection. And then we connect that experience to the real world. So what's happening at school, what's happening in sports, or even what's happening socially. And we apply what's learned through our 4-H experiences to other situations. Maybe now, maybe in the future, maybe we even reflect on things that have happened in the past and how we wish that we could could have made a different choice, right? And that's exactly how life skills are practiced. Again, it's not by accident. It's very intentional. And we've made a movement towards talking about 4-H projects as the vehicle that drives youth to learn those life skills. So I want to hear from all of you. What What are you doing to intentionally bring life skills to the youth that you interact with in 4-H? Go ahead and put that in the chat. What are you doing to intentionally bring life skills to youth that you interact with in 4-H? Yeah, connecting them through their community. Absolutely. Whether that's doing community service projects or service learning projects, having them be out in the community interacting with folks. Yeah, focusing on life skills. The youth told me that are important to them. Yes, that's perfect, Christina. You're absolutely right. Listening to what's important to them and then helping them to build on that. That's exactly what positive youth development is all about. Having them plan what activities they want to do in the club. Providing a wide range of opportunities for learning. Yeah, not everybody learns the same way. So it's important to offer a variety of different things. I always say it's important for kids to also learn what they don't like to do. So in learning what they do like to do, it's just as important to learn that they don't like to do something too. Nominating youth for rewards and helping them fill out forms. Yeah. Showing how what they like to do can be taken to the next level and helping them to see how they can earn rewards and build their skills. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm just beginning with 4-H with my kiddos. So I'm excited to see what it brings to all of our lives. Absolutely. Well, welcome. Create opportunities for youth to make decisions, take responsibility, and reflect. Yes, absolutely. And connecting with them and pushing them to try new things and to do events at the county and state levels. Absolutely. It's a tiered approach. You know, some kids find out that what happens at the county level isn't necessarily for them, but then they like to participate in state level events and activities. Either approach is absolutely fine what's important is that they have that spark they find that sense of belonging and they they know that 4-H is a place where they are absolutely welcomed yeah so all of you are doing so many wonderful things thank you so much yeah Tyreen empowering them to plan organize and do things that they want in the community for example running stations at a harvest festival Yeah. So it's a lot more fun when kids can be involved in the activities. Think back about those life skills that they're gaining and planning, working together, making decisions together, maybe finding out something doesn't work quite right and finding a different solution using those critical thinking skills. it's so much more effective than just telling them this is what's going to happen and you're going to be a participant in it. We want them a participant in the learning and engagement. So absolutely. So what I want to tell you is that what you're doing as volunteers and as staff, it's working. These are numbers for Michigan 4-H participation for the last program year, which was our 23-24 program year, 137,000 youth. That was an increase of 2,500 youth from the year prior and over 10,000 volunteers up from an increase of 2,000 volunteers from the year prior. So thank you for all that you're doing because it's so important to our communities. It's so important to our entire world to be able to have youth participate in 4 -H and gain these skills that they truly need to be beyond ready. So thank you for your work in volunteering. I also wanted to share with you some of our top project areas. Now we do have some friendly competitions that happen in our counties across the state about project leaders wanting their projects to be the most participated in project, but this is for the state of Michigan. So here our largest participation area is actually in swine and then you can see following behind them is first and pony, rabbits and cavies, quite a few of those livestock program areas, project areas right up there. And then expressive arts, introductory 4-H projects, nutrition and food. So I wanted to share these because there are so many amazing things that happen at the local level that feed into the state level. And what we know is that because you're intentional about helping youth to build those life skills, you're also helping them to become beyond ready. And it's through these 4-H projects that this is happening. So thank you again for all that you're doing as volunteers and as staff because this is very exciting. I also want to take a minute and just share some of the really cool things that we're doing on a state level that you may not hear about that brings intentionality to the life skills and to Beyond Ready. So I have a couple of examples here. I'm going to fly through them pretty quickly, but wanted to share these. Here in 2425, Michigan 4-H celebrated 50 years of partnership with states 4-H international exchange programs. and this is a collaboration that has helped Michigan 4-H to conduct youth exchange programs with counties worldwide. Through this collaboration Michigan 4-H sends both Michigan youth to other countries meaning outbound and hosts international youth with Michigan 4-H families meaning inbound. Since 1974 more than 150 4-H youth have traveled outbound visiting countries such as Argentina, Australia, Costa Rica, Finland, Japan, Norway, and South Korea. Typically, youth travel over the summer for a term of four to six immersive weeks. For youth who don't wish to travel abroad, the cultural experience can come to them by hosting an inbound youth through this experience. In 50 years of participation, Michigan 4-H has hosted more than 3,100 international youth from 47 different countries. And this includes Georgia, Japan, Romania, Serbia, Taiwan, and Ukraine, amongst many, many others. Most youth are hosted for a period of about a month during the summertime. But regardless of the format, Michigan 4-H international exchange programs play a critical role in helping to prepare a generation of youth who are ready for anything in today's globally connected world as they learn to appreciate different cultures, gain knowledge about different parts of the world, and build an understanding of ways our lives are all connected despite some geographical differences. Another example that I want to share with you here is in December of 24, leaders of MSU Extension and the Office of Admissions signed a memorandum of understanding to formalize a decades-long handshake agreement that encouraged 4-H professionals in MSU Extension County offices to assist students interested in MSU finding pathways to the admissions process and other future opportunities. Similarly, the Office of Admissions staff direct MSU -interested youth to our 4-H pre-college events and other 4-H programming opportunities locally as well as statewide. This is an incredibly exciting partnership. Nearly 3,500 youth and their family members interacted with the admissions folks or our 4-H professionals at 16 different pre-college activities with them both being on campus as well as off campus. Events like 4-H Day at the Breslin, World Food Prize, Adulting 101 virtual sessions, as well as 4-H Exploration Days, Capital Experience, and the 4-H Animal and Vet Science Camp. So there is a wonderful partnership that's happening here. We've had a lot of really great successes, and our team is already looking forward to our partnership in 2026 and how the 140 champions, both from the Office of Admissions and from MSU Extension can continue to work together to help kids get excited about their futures and post-secondary options which also include MSU. World Food Prize Michigan Youth Institute. So here since 2015 Michigan 4-H and MSU Extension have been hosting the World Food Prize Michigan Youth Institute and this is an innovative program that seeks to inspire and prepare the next generation of global leaders to end world hunger by bringing youth in grades 7 through 12 together to discuss ideas related to poverty and global food security. In total, 141 youth from 19 different counties took part in the pre -work for the event, and this includes writing a three-to-five-page research paper, and 109 youth and 23 teachers and adult mentors came together in May to do presentations. Youth participants researched 75 countries exploring 22 different global challenge topics. As an important part of the program, kids interact with experts in the field and enjoy experiences with leading MSU researchers who are exploring current research topics and issues in the fields of food, agriculture, natural resources, international development, and Life Studies. This is another amazing partnership. With this partnership, we actually have 11 youth who were selected to represent Michigan and attended the World Food Prize Global Youth Institute later this month. So it's a pretty exciting opportunity for youth to capitalize on their experiences, continue to explore their skills that they want to could just explore. And we're here as volunteers and as staff to be right alongside them to do that exciting work. And here, one last opportunity that I want to share with you. Raise your hand or put in the chat if you've been a part of 4 -H Exploration Days in the past. I was. It's how I got my interest in MSU. Yeah, many are saying they have. Me too. One of my favorite stories about 4-H Exploration Days when I was a youth is that I had a friend that I would room with at Exploration Days and we would sit in our window well in Hubbard Hall during downtime and dream about the day that we would go to MSU and the things that we would do as students when we went there together and roomed together. And lo and behold, we actually did that. We were roommates for a long time and still very good friends and it's one of those opportunities where i have a deep love for exploration days and have had the opportunity to make some really positive changes with our staff to explore additional careers so here um this year in 2025 we added a new component to our 4-h exploration days called campus career connections and these are unique from the standard sessions at exploration days where these tracks were focused on careers, education, and hands-on experiences related to career pathways and potential jobs. Each had a strong connection with MSU colleges, departments, and facilities and were led by MSU experts who shared more about the jobs in their field as well as the education and training that's needed for those jobs. In this pilot year, we had 19 campus Career Connect tracks that were offered to 4-H participants and through these tracks youth were encouraged to take an in -depth look at their job and career options in a variety of fields that included animal science, forestry, language arts, public safety and all sorts of other topics. And whether the track piqued someone's interest in a future career or identified an educational pathway for a dream job, or helped a youth to see a field that was really not for them at all, all helped our 2025 Expo Days participants to become ready for work in a new way. At the conclusion of this event, 84% of youth surveyed said that the event helped them to learn more about the jobs that they might want to do in the future, and careers that youth reported being most exciting for them to learn about were things like animal care, production and management, being a vet or another animal science health related field, and science. After such success in this initial year, plans are well underway to continue these Campus Connect tracks in 2026 and we are excited to see where we can go with them. So here you can see that being ready is more than just an action. It's a mindset. We're always thinking about teaching those youth life skills, those critical life skills. And we don't just prepare youth with the knowledge to get them through these obstacles, because we're not about that. We're here to help them to conquer their obstacles. We want things to be beyond their imagination, beyond the expected, and beyond ready. And as we tie that all together, it's incredibly important that we always think about how we incorporate that youth voice. Many of you talked about things you do to help build those life skills. And that's how we build those youth voice, give you the say within the 4 -H experience, have them plan things, have them make the decisions, create a safe environment for them to make mistakes so they can learn, because those are the kinds of things that will help maneuver them and have them be beyond ready for whatever they need within the future. So at this time, we want to take a moment and thank you all for attending.