1890 Universities Celebrate 125 Years

Posted on February 24, 2015 by NewsAdmin

There is a proud history of human development that 1890 institutions will be celebrating during this year’s 125th anniversary of the founding of those colleges and universities created to serve America’s black population. During 2015, many impressive moments and accomplishments of the 1890 schools’ history will be rediscovered and applauded. The 4-H History Preservation Team is interested in being involved in the documentation of the History of 4-H as it was delivered through these institutions because they have not located a national collection of this information to date.

As a part of this honored heritage and celebration, each institution will be making every effort to document, acclaim and preserve this legacy, making it easier for upcoming generations to retrieve these findings as a basis for future youth program development. Part of this effort is currently getting started in the leadership of the National 4-H History Preservation Team, made up of Cooperative Extension retirees and current staff of the National 4-H Council and NIFA, USDA.

During 2015, the National 4-H History Preservation Team, with the help of staff from the 1890 institutions (now called Historically Black Colleges and Universities – HBCUs), plan to construct that significant segment of the history of 4-H youth development, from the founding of the 1890 institutions to the current decade. One possibility is to organize the history of the African American youth development programs delivered by those schools, decade by decade, highlighting issues, set-backs, efforts and accomplishments of each decade from 1890 to 2015.

If you or someone you know is interested in working with the 4-H History Team on this project please contact us at Info@4-HHistoryPreservation.com . And since February is National Black History Month, as you research things to celebrate, don’t overlook the treasure trove of important information at the HBCUs

“Voices of 4-H History” Opens Doors for Hawaii 4-H

Posted on February 22, 2015 by NewsAdmin

In 2014, two Youth-Adult Partnership teams consisting of two teens and one adult participated in the “Voices of 4-H History” project for Hawaii.

According to Joan Chong, HI Extension service, the teams from Kona and Maui participated in a basic training that covered interview questions and techniques, project design and management, pre-production, filming, and camera techniques.

Because of training time constraints, the teams were also encouraged to connect with the local Community Access Television (CAT) to assist in editing and piecing the video together, and CAT was happy to help out. They offered classes in basic video production, camera operation, editing, lighting and studio production. Once the participants became certified producers at the CAT studios, the use of the television equipment and facilities were FREE! All the Youth-Adult Partnership teams needed to do was ask for help. When asked about the project, we found that youth participants not only learned video production but also gained knowledge about 4-H and the effect it has had on others.

Here are a few quotes from the youth:

“I felt that this project allowed me to experience what it felt like to be a part of 4-H many years ago. Through their stories, I can see how 4-H shaped people’s lives and how it helped 4-H’ers to ‘make the best, better!’”
“The best part of participating in this project was being able to learn more about 4-H and its history. I also learned a new skill of how to edit videos on the computer. I enjoyed meeting new people and learned how much 4-H meant to them.”
“It opened my eyes and gave me a better understanding of 4-H. It was heart-warming to listen to their experiences. Times were so different, yet very similar in many ways.”
“It provided us with so many learning opportunities. Several of the people we interviewed told us how much it meant to them to have their story told.”

One Adult participant shared observations as well:

“Participating in this project provided me with the opportunity to have a Youth-Adult partnership; it was a unique experience working side-by-side with the youth. It was not a top-down partnership where I needed to tell them what to do, but a collaboration of working together and equally contributing ideas. Although it was very interesting to hear how 4-H has changed (or not) over the years, it really was dependent on the perspective of the person being interviewed as their experiences and involvement in 4-H varied.”

History Preservation Newsletter
February 2015

Posted on February 19, 2015 by NewsAdmin

This National Archive photo of Booker T Washington’s “School on Wheels” depicts one of the early innovations of the 1890 Institutions which took education to the rural areas.

February is National Black History Month, so what better lead than a feature on the 125^th anniversary of the creation of the 1890 Universities, those educational institutions created to serve the country’s African-American population. Important 4-H programs were delivered from those schools before integration and continue today.
National 4-H Week was created in 1945 – but in March instead of October – with the theme “Head, Heart, Hands and Health for Victory!” It’s not too early to start contacting local media to feature 4-H (and 4-H history) this fall as well as any time during the year.

In 1930, Fort Worth 4-H girls featured “Secrets of Feminine Charm” in a stock show booth. Do you think they could convince women to use an apple as a skin softener, or milk as a vanishing cream?

The National 4-H History Preservation Website unveils its newest informative chapter: a Compendium of 4–H Promotion and Visibility stories which delight and educate. These are vignettes from history files of the myriad ways 4-H promoted itself from local communities up to the national and international levels. It’s pleasant reading.

“Voices of 4-H History” continues with Hawaii as its newest participant; the 2015 National 4-H FilmFest screens in June; University of Tennessee Collegiate 4-H joins the effort to preserve the history of campus 4-H clubs – and much more in this issue.

Whether you’re snowed in, being blown around by heavy winds, slogging through driving rain or basking in the warming sun (all of which are possible in February), we hope you enjoy this issue.

Contemporary 4-H History:
History Website Supports 4-H National Youth Science Day

Posted on September 12, 2014 by NewsAdmin

National Youth Science Day celebrates 4-H’ers across the nation taking part in a single-themed series of scientific experiments and tasks; this year it focuses on aerospace engineering. Taking place on October 8, the 4-H NYSD 2014 National Science Experiment will be “Rockets to the Rescue!” developed by the University of Arizona. In support of the 2014 theme, the National 4-H History Preservation Program has researched and written a new segment on “Astronauts, Space and 4-H” for National 4-H History Preservation website at http://4-HistoryPreservation.com/History/Space/.

The famous aviatrix Amelia Earhart (center left) was one of the major guests and handed out awards to delegates attending the 1932 National 4-H Club Congress.

The 4-H program’s involvement with space can be traced from Amelia Earhart and Admiral Richard Byrd through astronauts Neil Armstrong, James Lovell, Ellison Onizuka, Jerry Ross and Peggy Whitson (a few of the NASA astronauts who were 4-H members) ; from a 4-H space television series with NASA – “Blue Sky Below My Feet” – to National Space Camp, National Youth Engineering Challenge events and now, 4-H National Youth Science Day. Space, indeed, is an important part of both 4-H history and 4-H today.

We would love to hear if and how you used 4-H History in space in your science day program this year at: Info@4-HHistoryPreservation.com.

With the 2015 theme, thousands of youth will focus on one scientific mission: feed a community plagued by natural disaster. Youth will be responsible for building an aerodynamic food transportation device that can develop large amounts of food to disaster victims. While participants will learn STEM concepts like previous NYSD experiments in past years, they will also learn a powerful and valuable lesson in nutrition and how to help solve current, global issues such as providing relief services in the wake of natural disaster.

National 4-H Week, October 5-11, 2014

Posted on September 11, 2014 by NewsAdmin

From 1946 through 1980 a new theme and new poster were introduced every year during National 4-H Week.

Why was it started? When and why did it change from spring to fall?

The Federal Extension Service at USDA developed a “4-H Mobilization Week” which was held annually in the spring from 1942 through 1945 as a means of recruiting 4-H members and focusing their activities to support the war with Victory Gardens, canning, increased crop production, scrap drives and sales of war bonds. This was a very successful campaign which significantly increased membership and helped tremendously with the war effort. In 1945 they looked back in their membership records and saw a similar member increase during World War I and a great drop in participation the following year. Not wanting to repeat that historical episode, they decided to turn their mobilization experience into a National 4-H Week in order to continue recruiting new members every year.

The answer to the second question is 1964.

According to a feature in the March 1964 National
4-H News by Fern Kelley, Assistant Director, 4-H, FES/USDA, considerable study and analyses were done before the change was made. That year, instead of being in March, National 4-H Week was held September 26 to October 3; in the future it was to be held the week in which October 1 occurred. In 1968 it was finally decided that it should be held in the first full week of October each year.

There seemed to be a number of good reasons for the change. In most states, the local recruitment and club reorganization period was in the fall. An increasing number of states were moving to fall enrollment and a fall date for National 4-H Club Week made sense. Local 4-H Club leaders were also calling attention to other problems they were having because so many different youth programs observed a promotion week during the spring. This was causing problems for clubs competing with other groups for window display areas or newspaper space in their re-enrollment drives. The fall dates also allowed for nationally prepared reports and statistics to be more timely or up-to-date than the spring date. It must have been a good move as the fall date has held since 1964. This October we celebrate the <B><I>50th</I></B> autumn National 4-H Week October 5-11.

4-H History Preservation News

Author Archives: NewsAdmin

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