Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues now at 837, temperature up to 66 under sunny skies, and it is our monthly visit with our friends from Seneca County's Cornell Cooperative Extension, and joining us today is Rachel Williams, who is one of the 4-H issue leaders. Rachel, good morning. How are you this morning?
Rachel Williams, Jordan: Good morning, Paul. Doing well. How about you?
Paul Szmal: Doing fantastic, and also joining us is one of the students who has been part of the Summer Youth Employment Program, and that's Jordan. Jordan, how are you this morning?
Rachel Williams, Jordan: I'm good. How are you?
Paul Szmal: Good, good. Jordan, we'll talk with you a little bit about your experiences in a minute, but to start things off, Rachel, I know you just had the 4-H Youth Fair, a little bit of a different format this year than previous years.
Rachel Williams, Jordan: Yes, we were super excited to join our friends and colleagues and families from Cayuga County Cornell Cooperative Extension 4-H, and it was just a wonderful experience, very welcoming, family-friendly, the youth having a great time together, families welcoming each other. It was just overall just a great few days of the fair last week. We had numerous animal shows, and the animals were fun, weren't they, Jordan?
Paul Szmal: They were.
Rachel Williams, Jordan: Jordan was helping us out there at the fair as well. We had our aesthetic building exhibits evaluated and were there on display, and a number of fun activities, as well as the livestock auction, which went wonderfully on Saturday afternoon, and over 50 livestock were sold and, or in some cases, purchased and then donated back to the youth so they could then actually do a little bit more with their animals if they wished to.
Paul Szmal: Oh, that's wonderful. I didn't know people actually did that sort of thing.
Rachel Williams, Jordan: Yeah, it was a nice surprise. It didn't happen with everyone. Some purchased their animal and then will, you know, proceed in whatever manner they wish to, you know, to garner the meat. So but yes, it was a great day. It was lively, and some wonderful supportive buyers came out for sure. So we were very lucky youth.
Paul Szmal: And it sounds like this sets a nice blueprint for future collaboration.
Rachel Williams, Jordan: I think so. You know, we do, in 4-H in particular, we do collaborate quite a bit across the Finger Lakes, across the state, really, but definitely across the Finger Lakes and Keugan-Seneca are in the same 4-H region. So we have done a number of other things together. But you know, in changing times, we have to, you know, make ourselves available for the youth when and where and how works for them and their families. Everybody is busy doing a lot of different things. And so this may be just what we need for this collaboration for a youth fair experience.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Rachel Williams and Jordan from the 4-H arm, if you will, of Seneca County's Cornell Cooperative Extension. Rachel, before we get to Jordan's experiences, what can you tell me about the Summer Youth Employment Program?
Rachel Williams, Jordan: For sure. So Summer Youth Employment Program is through the, in Seneca County, it falls under the Workforce and Youth Bureau, which are joined together in our county. And for many years, we've been very fortunate to work with the program, either taking on summer youth employees. This year, we have just one and we're really lucky to have Jordan. Some years we've had up to six that have worked with us throughout the summer. Some have continued to work with us in some cases when possible beyond the summer. Some have come back and become volunteers. So it's just a great opportunity to give young people exposure to the workplace. And not every workplace is the same. I'm sure Jordan has spoken with and will speak with some of her friends that are working in other places. They're all very different. So whoever comes and works with us definitely gets great exposure to a lot of different things because Jordan can speak to this, but she's had a chance to work with, gosh, I think everybody in our office, so every program area, definitely the youth piece or anything that crosses in the youth piece, we definitely benefit from having another youth present. It's just welcoming and inviting. And I know Jordan does enjoy the younger kids. So that's been nice. But yeah, she's been exposed to everything today, this afternoon, she's actually going to do something with recycling with some of our colleagues. And it's just really a great experience to get exposed to all of these even general work skills like communication, problem solving, things like timeliness, gosh, everything you can think of under the sun, you get exposed to when you're in the real workplace. And we run pretty busy and fast here generally. So you get a lot of that.
Paul Szmal: Jordan, tell me, out of the experience that you've had, it sounds like you've done a whole variety of different things from what Rachel is saying.
Rachel Williams, Jordan: Yeah, I have. It has been a very great experience because I've got to work with kids and get to experience new things that I haven't before. And I think it's good for me to experience this now. So I will have a thought of what could happen in the real workforce in the future.
Paul Szmal: Is there a particular segment of what you did this summer that stands out as being like a favorite?
Rachel Williams, Jordan: Definitely working with the kids. I loved it. I did activities with them and we went in the garden. It was very fun and all the kids were great and I would definitely do it again.
Paul Szmal: That is wonderful, Jordan. Tell me, do you think maybe this has kind of influenced some of your decisions on what you want to do beyond school?
Rachel Williams, Jordan: So I've actually had a lot of thought about it and I am kind of deciding between two things that I want to do. I either want to go to human services to help with kids and stuff like that, or I want to go to criminal justice to work with criminals.
Paul Szmal: Wow. Well, I wish you the best of success, whichever path you decide to choose. And from what Rachel is saying, it sounds like you've been doing a bang up job for everybody at the Seneca County 4-H.
Rachel Williams, Jordan: Yeah, I've been here, there, everywhere, helping out, doing whatever they need me to do. And it's been fun. It hasn't been boring or anything. It's always been exciting every single day coming into work because you never know what you're going to get.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, this is true. This is very true.
Rachel Williams, Jordan: We don't have a plan. We just never know. So Jordan will actually be at the, she's been going to the farmer's markets as well. That's been a regular part of her schedule. So she will actually be at the Waterloo Farmer's Market this afternoon for a little while. We have to spread out her different duties for the day. But definitely the farmer's markets are a place where people can see her, at least for a couple more weeks.
Paul Szmal: Awesome. Awesome. Like I said, Jordan, I wish you the best of success, whatever path you decide to go down. It sounds like you've had some good solid real world experience being a part of the Seneca County's 4-H's Summer Youth Employment Program. Rachel, let's talk about some upcoming events that are on the calendar here because I know we've got a few things that are in the pipeline.
Rachel Williams, Jordan: We do. We do. We have another food preservation workshop. We have another food preservation workshop. The Canning Tomatoes Workshop will be on Tuesday, August 26th, 6 to 7.30 p.m. at the Seneca Falls Community Center. We're moving it around the county. We had a great, great large group of folks that came out for the pickling workshop. Jordan actually helped out with that one as well. So please do check that out. Registration is online on our website, senecacountycce.org. It's right on the front page. And yeah, we have a number of those that are continuing to come up on the schedule throughout, but that's our next one.
Paul Szmal: Additionally for us, we have the New York State Fair coming up.
Rachel Williams, Jordan: Oh, yeah. That's a big one. It is a big one. It's a whirlwind for us. So the fair itself starts on August 20th, but we have all kinds of preparations for that. So coming right out of county fair, we go right into have everybody ready for state fair. There's a number of contests and events that our youth will be participating in, both in the youth building at the fairgrounds and also in several of the animal science experiences as well. So if you are at the New York State Fair, please do look for our youth, not just the Seneca County 4-H youth, but 4-H youth from across the state. And we work quite closely also with the FFA youth too that will be present at the state fair. So we're looking forward to a number of those contests coming up. We have Dairy Challenge, Livestock Skillathon, Lego Challenge. We have a WEP challenge, which has to do with wildlife exploration and identification, which we actually had a small portion of that at our county fair experience along with Kew County that the kids really were excited about. We have our Produced in New York State event, which is the food demonstration, the silent food demonstration, which we've spoken about here at the county level. That's at the state level. We also have our, which is the contest that's similar to our Junior Iron Chef contest, which we also spoke about previously, that takes place. There's so many. There's so many opportunities. So we do share those regularly on our Seneca County 4-H NY Facebook page. There's so many coming. So please do check that out and see what opportunities there are, because they're not all for youth that just are already in 4-H. Sometimes it's a good kind of experience to kind of see what's being offered and check it out and say, oh, I really would like to try to do that in the future. And state fair is a good taste of that, I would say.
Paul Szmal: Is the New York State Fair the kind of, you know, the crescendo of coming to a big point in the year where this is like one of the centerpieces of what the 4-H programs across the state do?
Rachel Williams, Jordan: I would say, yes. It is, we have several, but I would say it is one. And one of the great things about being in 4-H is that youth meet each other throughout the year at other statewide events and national events, truly. And so the state fair is a place where they love to come together and see each other again and work together. There's a number of leadership opportunities at the state fair. Youth do work at the state fair in a number of capacities. So it may be a 14-day stint where they're in charge in the youth building. So they're junior superintendents. They're in charge of what's happening in the building, making sure that everything is in order, making sure that media goes out, all of that. And they also may man certain spaces. So if anybody's been to the youth building at the New York State Fair, I'm sure you remember the baby chicks. We have youth. It's very popular. We actually have youth that work throughout the fair, actually manning that space, organizing that space, interacting with the public, as well as all throughout the 4-H building there, the youth building. So it's quite a busy time, and it's also a fun time. So youth do enjoy that celebration, celebration of all the skills they've gained and also that opportunity to be part of a group where they feel like they belong and they're welcome, and they enjoy just having fun together.
Paul Szmal: And I hope you get a chance to breathe after all of that.
Rachel Williams, Jordan: Yeah. I mean, we have a short, short maybe break, I guess you call it, but we move right into our new 4-H year. So September is often kind of closing everything out and getting ready for the new 4-H year. But we'll be back in the schools doing programs in September, Paul. So we might take about five days or so of a little break.
Paul Szmal: Well, it'll be well-deserved, it sounds like.
Rachel Williams, Jordan: Absolutely.
Paul Szmal: Rachel, thank you so much. Jordan, again, best wishes to you as well. Appreciate you both joining us this morning.
Rachel Williams, Jordan: Thank you, Paul. Have a great day.
Paul Szmal: It is 851 on FLX Morning.
