Last day of work and...BOISE!!

Today is my last day of work with the internship that I have in Cache Valley with Sky View High School. These last few months I have learned much in regards to my major and have been given such a great opportunity to get hands on experience. I really appreciate my advisor's Mr. Dave Erickson, Ms. Kris Thompson, and Mr. Clint Aston. They have taught me so much and have helped continue to push my drive towards teaching. They gave me free reign to complete my visit's with my students and were always there to help if there was a problem. They were so nice to include me into their summer planning and leadership events like I was part of the team. I felt so welcome and because of that I was able to put in my small input to help further their program. I am excited to start school next week, however, I am sad to be done with this program. I have put in over 360 hours since June and have drove many hundreds of miles visiting with numerous students and parents in the Cache School District.

To those of you who have no idea what my internship entailed...

I was hired by the state of Utah's Department of Education. From there I was filtered down to Cache Valley's Sky View High School where I reported to the three Agricultural Science Teachers and the principle. Sky View High School had over 380 students registered for an Ag related class (Ag Biology, Welding, Small Engines, Wildlife, Leadership, Plant Sci, Horticulture...etc) for the next year. We recieved all these student's information and were trying to recruit them to participate in a summer credit called a Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE). The SAE consists of three parts where the student only needs to fullfill one area to recieve the credit. They are:

1. Work for someone in an Ag related field

2. Own your own business

3. Research/ Exploratory...experiments or new related data.

The student has records that they must keep that relate to the area they are completing. My job is to make sure that they are filling out the correct paperwork and help them complete their project. I visited them at least three times and took pictures of their projects. Some of them are quite unique and were very interesting to learn about. It also made me appreciate how many students are hard workers around here. Out of 96 students that I was over this summer, only a handfull (maybe ten) didn't have a summer job and that was because they were in a sport that didn't allow them to take the time to get a job or because they were gone for over a month in another country. The rest had one and about 1/4 of them had two jobs. Many of them even had their own business' and we are talking about high schoolers here!! :)

I also helped with the county fair...and for the ignorant few that think that entails picking up poo or "this one tastes like it got into an onion patch" you are wrong. Sorry, One pet peeve of mine...don't laugh at my expense when you have no idea what it is. Pretty ignorant.

Anyways... In four days I put in over 60 hours of helping record data, helping with the sale (taking money), setting up arenas for the next day's exhibitors, giving out awards...etc.

I also got to drive down to Lehi with the chapter officers to go to the Chapter Officer Leadership Training. I left at 5:10 in the morning and I didn't get home will 10:15...that was another long day but fun none the less.

I also went on a two day Leadership Retreat with the chapter officers and the advisors to Bear Lake where I helped with their yearly planning. We went to the beach and I planned some team building activities to help them come together and work as one unit. We went to a play at the Pickelville Playhouse and also stayed the night in a beautiful cabin that was giant.

I hope that gives you a little idea what I did this summer...

Paul and I are leaving today to go to Boise before school starts. We will be back in the Cache Valley on Friday evening in time for Paul's Officer Function the next day in Salt Lake City. Please pray that we will have a safe journey as sometimes we get complacent with the familiar road to Boise although it can be long (around four hours). I will post pictures and what we did in Boise upon our return.

Until then...