Personal Narrative: My Trip To Penn State University

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Throughout high school 4-H and FFA were both very important to me. These organizations fueled my love for agriculture and ultimately were instrumental in deciding my college major. I am an Agriculture Communication major with a Food Science minor. I love and communication goals, and objectives to others and I this is why public relations is the dream job for me. I am very interested in the sheep industry and love helping my nine year old sister and other livestock exhibitors with their show animals. If I am not with friends, working on school work, involved in organizations, you can

Growing up on a family farm in rural South Dakota, I never considered myself different from any other farm kid. At the age of eight, I joined the local 4-H club. Through my ten years of membership, I have participated in many differing project areas from showing beef calves to visual arts and everything in between. Through my many failures, I learned from my mistakes taking numerous best of show awards at county fair and finding success at state fair. 4-H has also given me the opportunity to become more involved in my community through local, county, and statewide community service projects. 4-H sparked my interest in agriculture.

In the summer of 2017, I had visited Wilkes-Barre, Arcadia University, Temple University. Wilkes-Barre and Temple had the urban atmosphere that I craved for college. Living in York, where there is farm down the street from my house, I needed to experience fast pace, never sleeping aspect of the city. With this in mind, it disappointed me how much neither Temple nor Wilkes awed me. I could see myself going there, but I could also see myself not. Another impediment was that it is only one hour away from my parents.

Astonishing, stunning, remarkable, spectacular, phenomenal: All words to describe my experience attending agriculture and biology related activities on college campus this past month. When I was assigned this assignment, I thought there would only be a few events to choose from, but after looking at the potential activities I could attend, I was awestruck by how many events that were held on campus. Little did I know that there so many opportunities for me to get involved in college. This engagement assignment helped me become more comfortable on campus and more familiarized with what is happening on campus. Three events I would like to highlight in my experience are the Ag. and Bio Ice Cream Social, SDSU

The Chesapeake Ecology Center (CEC) has persistently labored over the last decade to design a hands-on facility that would teach

For the past eight years, I have been apart of the First Town Veterinary Science 4-H Club. In this club I have held leadership positions such as reporter, secretary, treasurer, vice president, president and junior club advisor. A major take away I have from participating in 4-H is community service and learning how to feel confident in myself. By having leadership roles and being an active member in the club, I was able to feel comfortable speaking in front of others and showing off my abilities through public speaking, projects and essays. As I went through high school I was able to do presentations in front of the class, present a concussion project in front of 100 plus coaches, run for shad derby queen which included speeches in front of

One of my most significant 4-H projects was reserve supreme heifer in 2007. I chose this because this was the first year I had ever shown and this was the year I did the best. Showing cattle taught me how to be responsible. Without the responsibility of taking care of an animal I wouldn’t be able to remember all the homework I needed to do that night. Without this skill school would be a struggle and I would be stressed all the time knowing my grades weren’t the best. So I’m glad I have learned this skill because it helped shape me for the person I am today a very successful, responsible girl in the top 25 percent of my class. Once I had the feeling of responsibility it helped me decide that I wanted to help others and care for them just like how I took care of the cow. I love helping and caring for people and this project helped me decide that I wanted to be a nurse.

Starting in seventh grade I began helping my 4-H swine group as a Junior Leader then later as a Teen Leader in my high school years. As a junior and teen leader I aided the adult leaders of the swine group run meetings, prepare the 4-Her’s for purchasing and caring for their projects, been a live example of proper showmanship of their hogs, and ensure that to members have proper uniform for showmanship at the county fair. This past year the group had four new first year members join; I was given the honor of coaching a young girl in the group one-on-one how to properly show her fair pig. Although I have always been involved in helping the entire group, being responsible for a single member was a new experience. I got to watch her develop under

Sharing knowledge, successes with other extension professionals is paramount to improvement of camping. As such, this agent at the national level presented a poster at the JPEL National Galaxy Conference regarding the use of small groups during residential programs, and the STEM Ambassador Program. Additional presentations include “Classroom to Camp: Putting the Science Behind What We do Best.” 2015 National Camping and Environmental Education Institute, Rock Eagle 4-H Center, GA and “STEM Ambassador Program”, 2014 National Association of Extension of 4-H Agents Conference, Minneapolis, MN.

There have been multiple experiences that I have had that would make me succeed at Penn State University. One experience is when I moved across the country. My freshman year I really struggled in high school. It was a big change and did not take it seriously enough. Then sophomore year came and I got a hang of it, but then I was hit with big news. My father tells me, in January, that we are moving to Scottsdale, Arizona In March. I was upset and shocked at first but then was really excited for this new experience. The worst part was leaving my mom, sisters, and grandparent’s all behind in New York. When I got there, I did not have any friends and was scarred about the change in school and the curriculum. After a while, I got the hang of it,

Explain how your 4-H experiences have helped you in your first year or two of college.

My Penn State trip started with three children, and almost ended with one. In 2014 my mother took my brother, my Opa, and myself to Penn State for my 13th birthday. Just remember never to bring your 88 year old grandfather or your brother on any kind of trip.

My experience at Stony Brook Wildlife Sanctuary included working hands-on, alone or with other volunteers, and bringing our questions to our mentors. I worked with another volunteer to take census of salamanders living under square boards of wood in the forest. We loved to see the small amphibians crawl around in the dirt and hide under the leaves. Along with salamanders we would find slugs, crickets, centipedes, and others. I loved being able to find little creatures and observe them in their natural states. We would sometime find a bug which we couldn’t identify, so we would take pictures of it to show the staff. After they helped us identify the insect, they would tell us whatever background knowledge they had of the bug, which was usually quite impressive. These mentors have inspired me to be like them and to one day fill the role of a mentor to someone who loves the environment like I do. I want to be able to provide people

My most memorable 4-H experiences have came about with my pigs. As receiving glory, trophies, and plaques in the show ring is memorable, it's the steps leading up to the fair that I will never forget. The valuable life lessons I have learned throughout showing pigs in the 4-H community is what feels most rewarding. My most important accomplishments come from my aunt and uncles house, months before the fair. My memories come from waking up at 6:15 on summer mornings to get pigs walked before the hot, sticky sun rose. Or getting 16 pigs clipped in a day, so they can look their absolute best when they get to the fair. Those days of hard work will always be remember. While at the fair I have had my share of success. With my pigs, my greatest accomplishments