Illinois 4-H

Favorite 4-H Projects:  Visual Arts, Aerospace, Woodworking, Photography and of course Weather!

Did any of your 4-H project skills, experiences or connections help prepare you for your career path?
When I took the weather project part of the project was to collect daily weather data and to make inferences from that information. At the time I did not have any idea that that would be my current job, but it is. On a daily basis I look at timeseries of how weather has changed and impacts drought conditions as part of my research.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to enter your career path?
The math and physics classes can be daunting initially but keep going. Don't be afraid to reach out to others in the weather and climate community, we want you to succeed. Lastly it is the best job in the world! After all you get to be a person who looks at clouds and knows things!

What did you learn through 4-H that benefits you today?
The biggest thing I learned through my 4-H journey was how to become proficient in speaking in front of an audience. In my early years of 4-H I was in no way interested in public speaking. Thankfully I had a persistent county coordinator (Thanks Yolanda!) who was adamant that I needed to do the public speaking project. After a few nudges in the right direction I found myself at the county public speaking contest and a few years later on the SFI4-H Team. Looking back now I am so grateful that I was nudged in this direction. Public communication is apart of my daily life. Whether it be facilitating student research group meetings, giving lectures, or presenting research at conferences I am communicating information to a broad audience. I am confident, I would not be successful in my current position without my experience in 4-H!

How did 4-H contribute to your leadership skills today?
My experiences in 4-H allowed me to learn how to lead and that has significantly paid off now. Prior to being in 4-H I was in no way a leader and was very happy just being a helper in the background. Through my time in Federation I learned what it meant to be a leader, as well as what my leadership style was. It gave me the confidence to be a leader as well as the organizational, communicative, mentoring and professionalism skills to succeed as one. Since graduating out of 4-H I have had the opportunity to serve in 10 officer roles of various organizations and 6 of those terms were as president.

What advice would you give a current 4-H member?
Try a little bit of everything! You never know what you might enjoy until you try it! If it ends up that you have 36 projects and are working on them until 3 in the morning of fair check in that is ok! Just have fun!

Do you currently volunteer or have volunteered with the 4-H program? If so, in what capacity.
When possible I come back and judge at the Shelby County 4-H Fair in the woodworking, visual arts and weather project areas.