Summer Internship Program: York County/Poquoson City and James City County

Primary Program Area Focus:   4-H

1. Describe your plans for this internship.  (i.e. What specifically will the intern be doing?)
The intern will work with the 4-H Program Assistant to develop a teen club, preparations for 4-H Junior Camp, and work with the ANR Agent on the launch of a new program.  The intern will also help with some office duties, learn about community needs based programing and impacts, as well as volunteer management. This information has led to one of our previous interns becoming a part-time 4-H Program Assistant in our office and currently a full-time ANR agent in Norfolk as she solidified her career goals.

2. Describe the knowledge / skills you expect the intern to gain from this experience.
The intern will gain skills and tools related to volunteer management, needs based programing and impacts, evaluation, and positive youth development.

3. How will the intern learn about the breadth of VCE and our various program areas?
The York/Poquoson VCE office is small and only has three staff, an Administrative and Fiscal Assistant (AFA), an ANR Agent/UC and a part-time 4-H Agent covering both localities. Being a small office the staff all work as a team and strive to work across all the VCE program areas. When youth are involved these concepts connect all three VCE areas, food growing, how fresh grown food plants help us fight disease when we consume them, and movement to keep the healing fluids in our body circulating.  We are piloting a program this year Grow, Eat, Move!, which will make this connection and give people skills in various ways of growing fresh food in an urban setting.  The program will utilize recipes and tastings as well as movement, to bring it all together as a tool for healing, and to get a taste of good health.  The intern will be engaged in the conception and delivery of this program as well.