Summer Internship Program: Nelson County

Primary Program Area Focus:  4-H

1. Describe your plans for this internship.  (i.e. What specifically will the intern be doing?)

Our office’s intern will primarily be working with 4-H youth development programs. Due to the popularity of our summer day camps, the summer intern will primarily be given leadership and creative freedom to plan and implement that program with the 4-H agent’s assistance. This will require strong self-management skills and knowledge in social outreach, advertising, youth development, and volunteer outreach. Day camps generally cover a variety of topics like cooking, STEM, outdoor activities (ex. hiking, fishing, gardening), and much more. An ideal summer intern would have the motivation and self confidence to jump into those topics and provide hands-on activities with youth. 

2. Describe the knowledge / skills you expect the intern to gain from this experience.

First, it is my hopes that our intern will learn to be great at self-management. This is a tremendously important skill in many careers such as extension and the better you are at pushing yourself towards goals the more you can succeed without the help of others. 

Since the intern will be working with 4-H youth I also hope they can learn some valuable teaching skills. Since we work with youth 5-18 they will be able to learn many types of teaching styles based on the ages and stages of youth.

I also hope that our intern will leave knowing a lot more about VCE and 4-H. I would really love if their experience was so positive that they consider a career with VCE. I hope that while they are employed they are able to meet other VCE professionals and volunteers and create a valuable network. 

Finally, I want them to have learned good communication skills and all that it encompasses. Being a VCE employee means working with the large and diverse community in their unit. This means you must be good at recruiting people, lots of follow-through, conflict management, and general partnership and fellowship. I want them to leave being a better communicator.

3. How will the intern learn about the breadth of VCE and our various program areas?

The intern will be exposed to varying aspects of VCE by explaining the broad role of the programs (state level) and then by showing the intern what we do here at the community level and why we are a necessary component of the community.