Agriculture, food, and natural resource (AFNR) systems need leaders to catalyze positive change. Thus, Extension professionals have consistently developed innovative and impactful leadership programming. In the current study, the alumni of one such program in Michigan were surveyed to evaluate the sustained impact of the program. Program alumni…

Teaching is an important part of an Extension agent's duties; however, little is empirically understood about effective teaching practices in an Extension context. The purpose of this study was to explore the adult teaching practices of exemplary extension agents. Through a nomination process, seven agents in Florida were interviewed. The analysis…

Polarization is increasingly impacting Extension's work in communities. Extension has untapped potential to address division and lack of civility by building civic infrastructure and skills for constructive dialogue. We describe a pilot program that began as a one-off event and grew into a series organized by University of Wisconsin-Madison…

The Choose Health Action Teens (CHAT) program of Cornell Cooperative Extension engages teens to teach a nutrition curriculum to younger youth, with the goal of enhancing the leadership skills and health behaviors of the teen teachers. Due to COVID-19, an in-person CHAT program in New York City was converted to virtual and implemented online during…

We examined the impact of 4-H participation on workforce readiness skill development, including personal, work, communication, and problem solving/decision-making. The study examined two levels of 4-H activities: county-level and state-level. The online survey instrument contained questions about demographics, skill development and 4-H…

The targeting life skills model created by Dr. Patricia A. Hendricks represents the skills developed by youths participating in 4-H. The model is used to identify desired learning and action outcomes of positive youth development programs. An article related to the origins and validation of the model was never published. This oral history…

Farmers involved in local food systems are seeking opportunities to expand operations and diversify their sources of income through value-added operations and access to new markets. To be successful, producers need further food safety training and business skills acquisition to mitigate potential risks. We outline and discuss a multidisciplinary…

Using a mixed model, we evaluated effects of national 4-H hippology and livestock skillathon contests on youths' content knowledge, 21st century skills, and postsecondary plans. Hippology participants gained significant knowledge in all topics except breeds, and livestock skillathon contestants gained significant knowledge in all topics. The…

To determine how Extension educators can use environmental education materials to develop life skills in youths, we correlated a national environmental education curriculum developed by Project Learning Tree (PLT) to the 4-H Life Skills Wheel. Youth development professionals can use the resulting correlations to determine which life skills the…

This article provides an overview of the development and components of LEAD95, University of Tennessee (UT) Extension's comprehensive leadership program for county-level leaders. The program was designed in accordance with results from a Delphi study, which identified critical skills and resources new county directors need to be successful. The…

Wooden planks are a tool for developing youth skills through science, technology, engineering, and math exploration. These are small planks that can be stacked to create complex structures as youths explore math and physical relationships in an applied context. Building with wooden planks also cultivates planning, reasoning, and team skills as…

The purpose of the study addressed in this article was to gather information from military service members and their teenage children attending Extension camping programs together. We used a pretest and a posttest to examine resilience of both groups and compared other postprogram youth outcome measures to a normative sample. We found…

The 4-H Volunteer Continuing Education Academy was developed to provide 4-H club leaders a continuing education opportunity, to assist them in developing and enhancing the skills and knowledge necessary for their volunteer role, and to provide a means for 4-H livestock and horse club leaders to recertify. All participants reported satisfaction…

Most 4-H judging events involve livestock or other traditional 4-H projects. Consequently, many urban and suburban youths miss out on building life skills developed through judging. In a nontraditional approach to 4-H judging, such youths play board, dice, and card games and then judge the games using the practice of giving oral reasons. The…

This article describes a novel grain marketing simulation game called "Marketing in a New Era" (MINE) that was developed for use in Extension producer meetings and other educational settings. Key benefits of MINE are that users can personalize the game's marketing simulation environment by incorporating information specific to their…