4-H Summer of STEM: A Practical Approach to Increasing Workforce Readiness

4-H Summer of STEM is a workforce readiness program for high school youth. The goals of the program are to increase students’ interest in STEM careers, improve college and workforce readiness, and connect youth to businesses and industries in the local community. Selected youth receive hands-on development of workforce readiness skills, are paired with a STEM mentor for job shadowing, and participate in college campus visits. Preliminary findings show that participants reported having a positive relationship between participation in 4-H youth development programs and career skills. This article introduces the 4-H Summer of STEM and offers suggestions for implementation

Informing Practice Through Professional Development: An Interstate Urban Programming Study Tour

Southeast Pennsylvania 4-H Extension educators identified a need for professional development in order to further develop current urban 4-H programs. The expectation was that increased awareness and knowledge would lead to increased skills competency in planning, implementing, and evaluating urban 4-H youth development programs. An interstate professional development program was developed to inform practitioners on positive youth development in urban communities. The 2-day program included on-site observations of urban programs and professional development on best practices. The event was scheduled as a study tour that involved intentional focus on practical applications of research theory for informal education. The Penn State Extension 4-H Urban Study Tour included on-site observations, program development, and networking leading to the successful development of action plans for local implementation. The program was evaluated for impact using pre- and post-tour survey tools. Results suggest that the participants gained value from the professional development study tour, thus similar opportunities may be warranted

Vessel Operations: Learn & Do! (High School) Module

This 4-page resource, provided by the Southeast Maritime and Transportation (SMART) Center, is a vessel operations career simulation activity for high school students. "The goal of this SMART activity is to expose students to the educational requirements as well as the duties and responsibilities of vessel operators." During the activity students conduct an overview of the vessel operations portion of the SMART Career Guide, take an online boating safety course, and use virtual tools to simulate operating computer generated boats. A link is provided for the boat safety course and the SMART Career Guide is available to view separately.Â

Needs Assessment Tool Kit

Conducting needs assessments serves as a valuable way for Extension educators to ensure that they are designing programs that meet community needs. We developed a needs assessment tool kit that educators across urban, suburban, and rural communities can use to answer the question What are the youth development needs in my county? Additionally, the tool kit\u27s components can be easily adapted for use in all Extension program areas and thus serve as a resource for educators in various contexts desiring to gather stakeholder input needed to strengthen their programming