Mikayla’s Journey: A Girl & A Sheep

Submitted By: Mikayla B.

Hello, my name is Mikayla and I would like to tell you about my participation in the Youth Conservationist Program. I found out about this program last year while I was attending the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in May at the Howard County Fairgrounds. To be part of this I had to fill out the application and write an essay. My application was accepted and I was chosen to receive my first choice breed of sheep. I received a Heritage Shetland sheep from a sheep breeder, Ms Linda, that donated the ewe to this program. She chose me based on the essay I wrote. I corresponded by email and phone with Ms Linda multiple times and we talked about what all I would be doing with my new sheep. We discussed sheep husbandry, the ewe’s personality and my hopes for the future as a new sheep owner. 

My next step was to prepare my barn with a dry lot to house my new sheep in quarantine upon her arrival. I needed to ensure the safety of my goats and sheep at home while bringing home a new sheep. Finally the day arrived for my mom and I to go to the Sheep and Wool festival to meet the sheep donor and take home my new sheep. I found out her name was Amelia and she was so cute. Amelia and I bonded very quickly while at the festival, with the help of some peanuts and snuggles. I got to see all of the other sheep and the other kids that had also been chosen to receive a sheep through the Youth Conservationist Program. I had a wonderful day exploring the Sheep and Wool festival, talking with sheep breeders, getting to know my wonderful ewe Amelia and meeting many new people and sheep breeds. After our Youth Conservationist Program’s event displaying our sheep in the show ring, it was time to take our sheep home. We decided to place Amelia in the quarantine area with our Katahdin sheep Darby, so she would not be lonely. After a month passed, a clear health visit by the veterinarian and clear fecal test, we acclimated Amelia and Darby in with our other animals. The goats and sheep all became friends very quickly which was wonderful to see. 

My experience participating in the Youth Conservationist Program has been amazing. I have met so many wonderful people, learned so many new things and have fallen in love with the Heritage Shetland Sheep breed.

Part II – 

Now it was time to prepare for Fair season, so I kept busy learning all I could on how to show wool sheep. We had a sheep judge, Ms Sara, come to the farm and meet Amelia and teach me how to walk her. I learned how to walk her with just my hands and with a lead. I also learned how to care for her fleece and prepare her fleece for showing. During the summer of 2019, I showed Amelia at the Baltimore County Fair and the Hereford Jr. Farm Fair. She and I won many ribbons and learned so much while having fun. 

We sheared Amelia with the help of one of our friends at the end of fair season. I then spent weeks picking out vegetable matter and then washing the wool. I took the clean wool to Ms. Linda’s house and she taught me how to finish processing the wool and spin it into yarn. We had a long information filled day on how to card or comb it, pick it and spin it! I learned so much from it and hope to make many neat projects. I am currently still spinning Amelia’s wool fiber into yarn and will crochet the finished yarn into something beautiful. 

I did make a wool felted replica of Amelia as a gift to the donor of my ewe, which was very fun to make and looked just like her. 

Once fall arrived, it was time for me to bring Amelia to a breeders house to breed with their ram. I researched many different farms with rams available and chose my favorite one to use for breeding this year. I chose an established ram with a great personality, good genetics and beautiful fleece owned by Ms Donna and Mr Jeff. If all goes well, we will have lambs in April 2020, just in time for the Sheep and Wool Festival. 

My experience participating in the Youth Conservationist Program has been amazing. I have met so many wonderful people, learned so many new things and have fallen in love with the Heritage Shetland Sheep breed. I am excited to be a part in helping conserve this beautiful Heritage breed of sheep and to be mentored by some of the greatest people. If you also would like to participate in this program, please contact Elaine Ashcraft at tankewe_cr58@yahoo.com 46118 CR 58, Coshocton, Ohio 43812. Elaine can help answer all your questions. For detailed description about the YCP program, you may look up the information at http://www.sheepandwool.org/festival/youth-conservationist-program/ I am very thankful for all those that made this experience possible for me this year. My parents, Ms. Linda, Ms. Elaine A, Ms. Donna and Mr. Jeff, and Ms. Sara all were wonderfully supportive and guided me through my new sheep journey. I am looking forward to continuing to learn all I can about sheep and their wool and hopefully in the future I can give back to the Youth Conservationist Program as a mentor or a donor. 

On May 15, 2020May 18, 2020 By Vernelle Mitchell-HawkinsIn Robotics, Animal Science, Agriculture, Food and Nutrition, Community Service, Leadership, Life Skills

University of Maryland Extension/4-H STEM Program Provides Solutions for the Community

University of Maryland Extension is the outreach component of Maryland’s Land Grant University System. The mission is to share research-based knowledge to the community. 4-H is the youth-serving organization of Extension programming nationwide. 4-H is the largest youth development organization in the country with over 6 million youth participants annually.  In Maryland, 4-H served over 51,000 youth in 2019.  The organization serves youth in the areas of healthy  living, civic engagement and STEM/Agriculture.

One 4-H programs, Summer of STEM, was established as a workforce development opportunity for youth. It was designed in Baltimore County to expose and prepare youth for meaningful careers in STEM.  Youth participants are paired with mentors in the STEM industry where they get “on the job” experience in a career that they are interested in pursuing.  In Baltimore County, youth shared that “I gained information and experience you can’t get in school.”  In 2018 the program was replicated by Allegany County 4-H.  The story below is an example of the impact that Extension has had on the community.

 

From the Educator:

When I heard about Baltimore County’s 4-H Summer of STEM program in 2018, I knew it was something that Allegany County needed.  In December of 2016, Cumberland, Maryland (Allegany County’s largest town) ranked first in the nation in Bloomberg magazine’s Brain Drain Index, which assesses the decline of advanced-degree holders, white-collar jobs, and earnings generated by employment in the STEM sector (Del Giudice & Lu, 2016).  Our best and brightest students often leave for college and don’t return.  Additionally, in an ever-changing world, Allegany County 4-H needs to re-establish itself in the community as an organization that continually grows to remain relevant.  Developing a new program focused on college and career-readiness, that also created new relationships with stakeholders and businesses in the community, was just what Allegany County 4-H needed.

Working with new partners from Allegany County Government’s Workforce Development office and the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education, in the summer of 2019, we replicated Baltimore County’s 4-H Summer of STEM in Allegany County.  We leveraged existing partnerships to find placements for the eight youth who applied, thus establishing relationships with new businesses and organizations.  One of the new partnerships developed was with the biomedical engineering department at Western Maryland Health System, now UPMC-Western Maryland.

As a 4-H educator focusing on STEM, I have had the opportunity to continually learn about and interact with new technologies, including 3-D printing.  My husband shares the same interests and is also fortunate to have access to new technologies as a science teacher and coordinator of a makerspace at a local private school.  As the coronavirus epidemic began to unfold, a 4-H robotics parent, whose team I helped 3-D print a robot piece, contacted me about the possibility of 3-D printing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for another 4-H parent, who is a doctor at UPMC-Western Maryland.

There have been many examples of makers in the news using their 3-D printers to help with the critical shortage of PPE.  One of the most notable examples in our region is Open Works, a makerspace in Baltimore, MD.  Our own local makerspace, Western Maryland Works, is run by our Summer of STEM partner from Allegany County Government’s Workforce Development department.  I had seen his posts of 3-D printed mask adjusters and face shield parts and knew that he was interested in helping our local community, as well.  Another member of our 3-D printing team is a 4-H robotics parent who is part of my husband’s school community.  She actually assembled the 3-D printers for the school and is very familiar with the technology.

Once we began looking at models of face shields, we realized that we couldn’t just 3-D print the frames.  Our local community needed to have the entire face shield, clear shield and elastic included.  We reached out to more of our community, including another Summer of STEM partner, Hunter Douglas, in an attempt to source the scarce materials.

However, one more critical component was the end-user.  It is impossible to manufacture a product without having feedback and input from the “customer.”  Fortunately, our biomedical engineering contact from UPMC-Western Maryland was only an email away.  He put us in contact with other departments from the hospital, and a week after beginning our project, we delivered 22 face shields.  The result was the creation of a process that produced PPE, created in part by Allegany County 4-H, that met the hospitals guidelines during the COVID-19 crisis.  Since inception, the maker partners have helped medical professionals and first responders all over Allegany County, delivering over 300 face shields.

At 4-H, we pledge our “hands to larger service” for our communities, and by utilizing the community connections that we made through 4-H Summer of STEM, we were able to help provide creative and timely solutions to.  Not only was University of Maryland Extension able to support the community, we helped to move the medical community towards sustainability and having the nimbleness to adequately respond to critical and rapidly changing situations.

 

By:

Vernelle Mitchell-Hawkins, Baltimore County 4-H & Jessica Mellon, Allegany County 4-H

On May 1, 2020 By Vernelle Mitchell-HawkinsIn Robotics, Animal Science, Agriculture, Food and Nutrition, Community Service, Leadership, Life Skills