{"id":7957,"date":"2022-10-21T11:14:41","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T15:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/?p=7957"},"modified":"2022-10-26T11:50:31","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T15:50:31","slug":"this-is-not-your-grandmothers-4-h","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/fall-2022\/this-is-not-your-grandmothers-4-h\/","title":{"rendered":"This is Not Your Grandmother’s 4-H"},"content":{"rendered":"
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4-H gives kids a chance to do hands-on projects in areas like health, science, agriculture, and civic engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Christina DiCenzo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a 4-H program coordinator, Christina DiCenzo \u201918 sees the organization adapting to meet young people \u201cwhere they\u2019re at.\u201d DiCenzo has learned a thing or two about adapting, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s play a word association game. I say \u201c4-H\u201d and you say, \u201cCows? Farms?\u201d When the 4-H program began in 1902, much of it did indeed have to do with cows and farms. The 4-H program democratizes academia: liberating knowledge from the ivory tower and delivering it into the hands of the community. The ruralized population of Rhode Island demanded knowledge of agricultural technology and home economics. 4-H-educated young people learned about things like baking, milking, planting, sewing, and other critical skills of the period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, I arrived for my 4-H job interview in a black dress and heels only to discover our offices were housed on a working livestock farm. I stuck around because, despite the manure, 4-H is fundamentally about youth development, not agricultural training. Youth development means something different today than in 1902. In 2022, only 18% of Rhode Island\u2019s population lives in a rural community. Most children in our state are not raised to pursue careers in agriculture, nor do they grow crops or raise livestock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMeeting children \u2018where they\u2019re at\u2019 means that we must rise to meet new societal needs while still retaining enough of our 4-H essence to remain recognizable.\u201d
\u2014Christina DiCenzo \u201918,
4-H program coordinator<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although 4-H\u2019s roots are deeply embedded in agriculture, a changing demographic has challenged 4-H to branch into new areas such as STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, math), fine art, and communications. In some states, there are staff listings as niche as \u201c4-H wetlands specialist.\u201d In short, this isn\u2019t your grandmother\u2019s 4-H program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, agricultural education remains a valuable and pertinent subject for many Rhode Islanders. Generations of families turn to 4-H for our rich animal science programs. We must balance this more traditional need with the needs of urban communities. In any given month, I might plan both a horseback riding clinic and a teen science caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This struggle to appeal to varied demographics is not unique to 4-H. Boy Scouts of America, with its historic ties to wilderness survival and public service, now offers badges for such activities as \u201ccomputer programming\u201d to recruit members. Meeting children \u201cwhere they\u2019re at,\u201d as we often say in 4-H, means that we must
rise to meet new societal needs while still retaining enough of our 4-H essence to remain recognizable.

When it comes to individual 4-H educators, we all have past experiences and expectations that influence our perspectives. But if I refuse to suspend my perspective, how can I possibly meet kids where they\u2019re at? In this regard, 4-H has taught me reflexivity and humility. We are what the remarkable young people we work with need us to be. Or, if we are not, we learn to be. \u2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christina DiCenzo \u201918 is 4-H program coordinator for 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Cooperative Extension Rhode Island 4-H program. She graduated from 溏心vlog免费B站 with a degree in wildlife and conservation biology, completed a 溏心vlog免费B站 graduate certificate in science writing and rhetoric, and is currently enrolled in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s master\u2019s in environmental science and management program, with a focus on environmental communication.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: COURTESY NATIONAL 4-H COUNCIL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Program coordinator, Christina DiCenzo \u201918 writes about today’s 4-H organization and meeting young people where they are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":8253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2022","architecture-quad-angles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7957"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8418,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7957\/revisions\/8418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}