Progress 09/01/24 to 08/31/25

Outputs
Target Audience:During this reporting period, the primary audiences reached through the 4-H Career Pathways Academy were first-generation or new 4-H youth in grades 6-12, primarily ages 12-17. These middle and high school students were targeted because they are at a key stage for career exploration, identity development, and planning for post-secondary education or entry into the workforce. Many participants were first-generation college-bound students or came from families with limited access to career exploration and workforce readiness resources. The 84 youth that engaged in the program this year resided in Wapello, Marshall, Story, Dallas, Crawford, West Pottawattamie, and Buena Vista Counties in the state of Iowa. The Career Pathways Academy provided students with opportunities to explore career possibilities through workshops, guest speakers, site visits, and college visits. Programming emphasized developing employability skills, leadership, and confidence to help youth prepare for future academic and career success. A specific focus area within the Career Pathways Academy was the development of an immersiveAnimal & Veterinary Science Club, which served youth from both urban and rural school districts in West Pottawattamie County who expressed a strong interest in animal and veterinary science careers. Twenty-five students (15 females and 10 males) participated in this club, engaging in hands-on learning, interactive lessons, and career exploration experiences. In Buena Vista County, the Career Pathways Academy targeted youth not yet engaged in 4-H or new to the program. Participants attended monthly educational sessions and monthly site visits to local businesses or colleges to deepen their understanding of potential career and educational pathways. Overall, the program reached youth who benefit most from intentional career readiness programming--those who are new to 4-H and seeking exposure to post-secondary and workforce opportunities. Changes/Problems: Funding Suspension and Program Impact: The temporary suspension of NIFA grant fundscreated challenges in maintaining program momentum, particularly for planned professional development activities and travel opportunities such as participation in the Youth Veterinary Science Program at Texas A&M University. This delay affected staff training timelines and limited the ability to expand veterinary science programming during the current reporting period. We are grateful that the suspension has been lifted and we are able to continue our programming! Participant Recruitment Challenges: Recruitment of new youthaudiences proved more difficult than anticipated in some counties. Many youth participants were first-generation 4-H members or new to Extension programming, requiring additional outreach, transportation support, and relationship-building efforts with schools and families to sustain participation. Program Continuity and Staffing Transitions: As this was the first program year for some staff members, onboarding and familiarization with ISU Extension systems and regional partnerships required additional time. Adjustments were made to strengthen collaboration, align curriculum with the National 4-H "Beyond Ready" Workforce Initiative, and expand microcredentialing options for youth. Limited Access to Local Resources: Some program sites experienced limited access to local businesses and industry partners for site visits or job-shadowing opportunities, particularly in rural areas. Staff are working to identify local funding sources and expand virtual and regional partnerships to address these gaps. Scheduling and Youth Availability: Youth participation occasionally fluctuated due to competing school, work, and family obligations. The project team plans to offer more flexible scheduling and hybrid or summer engagement options in the next reporting period. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During this reporting period, project staff and participants engaged in several professional and leadership development opportunities. Youth participants explored personal and professional growth topics during educational sessions and gained communication and media experience through a local radio station visit, where they conducted interviews and recorded commercials. Staff members completed ICAN FAFSA Professional Training/Certification and participated in a nine-month community leadership program that included business visits, leadership panels, and networking experiences. In addition, project staff joined the ISU Extension and Outreach Region 21 Agriculture Team for meetings, professional development sessions, and tours to strengthen collaboration and program development in animal and veterinary sciences. Plans were also made for staff participation in the Youth Veterinary Science Program at Texas A&M University, offering future hands-on training to expand youth veterinary programming in Iowa. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results were shared widely with youth, families, schools, and community partners through multiple communication channels. Program outcomes and participant successes were highlighted during end-of-program celebrations, reflections, and certificate presentations recognizing completed learning hours. Updates and impact stories were shared with schools and local partners through presentations, newsletters, and social media posts on county and program pages. Families received photos and session highlights, while youth participants helped promote the program through word of mouth, encouraging peers to join future cohorts. Feedback gathered from participants is being used to refine and strengthen programming for the next year. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, the project will expand hands-on learning and workforce development opportunities that align with the National 4-H "Beyond Ready" Initiative, which focuses on preparing youth with the knowledge, skills, and experiences needed to enter the future workforce with confidence. Programming will integrate microcredentialing opportunities that allow youth to earn digital badges or certificates recognizing their achievement in areas such as STEM, agriculture, leadership, communication, and teamwork. These stackable credentials will help youth document and demonstrate their skills to future employers or postsecondary institutions. Additional plans include offering new site visits, workshops, and experiential learning opportunities that expose youth to emerging career fields, including coding, financial literacy, digital skills, and entrepreneurship. Recruitment will be strengthened through collaboration with schools and community partners to reach new and underserved audiences. The project will also continue efforts to make programs more accessible, encourage youth participation in county fairs and community events, and seek local funding to sustain and expand the initiative.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? What was accomplished under these goals: During this reporting period, the Agri'CY'ence Academy successfully advanced its goals of engaging underserved Iowa youth in agricultural systems and technology through hands-on, career-focused learning. Across participating counties, youth explored diverse agricultural and STEM-related career pathways while developing leadership, communication, and workforce readiness skills. In Wapello County, one AmeriCorps member supported program implementation and youth participated in five college and career readiness sessions addressing topics such as career exploration, professional skill building, and financial literacy. Participants connected classroom learning with real-world experiences through business visits--including John Deere, a local veterinary clinic, and a radio station--where they learned directly from professionals and engaged in hands-on activities. Youth also attended the State Science and Technology Fair of Iowa, a college visit to Iowa State University, and the national Ignite by 4-H Youth Summit in Washington, D.C. The program concluded with a Family Capstone Event that celebrated participants' accomplishments and community involvement, including volunteering at the local Juneteenth Festival. In Buena Vista County, Career Pathways Academy youth engaged in multiple site visits to explore careers in cosmetology, real estate, law enforcement, and agriculture. Several students expressed new or strengthened interests in these fields following their experiences. Eight youth attended the Ignite by 4-H Summit, with one returning inspired to start a composting project. Participants also attended the Siouxland STEM Festival and engaged in hands-on agriculture projects, including planting flowers, fruits, and vegetables. In Marshall County, participants gained essential workforce skills through résumé writing, communication workshops, and exposure to career opportunities via local employers and colleges. These activities built confidence and provided tools for future career success. In West Pottawattamie County, the Animal & Veterinary Science program ran from March through September, meeting monthly during the school year and bi-monthly in summer. Students participated in lessons using curriculum from leading universities and gained hands-on skills in animal handling, anatomy, biosecurity, and veterinary procedures. Learning was reinforced through site visits to equine facilities, the Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine, the ISU Feed Mill, and the 4-H Animal Science Roundup. Youth also volunteered at the county fair and attended the Iowa State Fair's Advanced Veterinary Camp. Through these experiences, participants built technical, problem-solving, and teamwork skills while exploring career options in veterinary and animal sciences. This was the first year Story and Dallas Counties held a Career Pathways Academy program. They engaged youth in grades 7-12 to explore career possibilities in agriculture and STEM through workshops, guest speakers, and field trips. Students also developed awareness of post-secondary educational opportunities as they begin to think about plans after high school. The academy met at the Ames Public Library and provided worksite visits for students. The program was successful and is being replicated again in 2026. During this reporting period, Crawford County strengthened STEM, agriculture, and career readiness education for youth and families through the 4-H Career Pathways Academy programs. In collaboration with Denison Middle School and community partners, participants explored postsecondary and industry pathways through interactive sessions, site visits, and hands-on learning. Youth toured BlueSpace Creative to learn about design and technology careers, visited United Bank of Iowa to explore ag business systems, and engaged in STEM activities that built problem-solving and digital literacy skills. Additional sessions focused on health sciences, entrepreneurship, resume building, and mock interviewing, connecting students with professionals across multiple sectors. Agricultural learning was emphasized through sessions with ISU Extension agronomists and tours at the Crawford County Fair, linking local food systems to career opportunities. The year concluded with a Capstone celebration recognizing youth achievements and participation in statewide initiatives such as the 4-H Connect Retreat, which further connected participants to STEM and agricultural pathways. Collectively, these efforts enhanced youth awareness of education and career opportunities in Iowa's agriculture, STEM, and industry sectors while building confidence, leadership, and workforce skills. Collectively, these accomplishments demonstrate strong progress toward the Academy's objectives--engaging underserved youth in immersive agriscience learning, fostering connections with local professionals and higher education institutions, and preparing future leaders, innovators, and agricultural scientists.

Publications

Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The 4-H Career Pathways Academy is a college and career readiness program designed for youth in grades 7-12. The program targets young people who identify as BIPOC, English Language Learners as well as youth from low-socioeconomic households and/or whose families are classified as immigrants or refugees. With these targeted youth audiences in mind, the 4-H Career Pathways Academy program targeted youth in three key Iowa counties that are considered the most diverse, bilingual, and multicultural with a high need for hands-on educational programs for youth outside of school time, such as the 4-H Career Pathways Academy program. In 2023-2024 59youth engaged in the program from Wapello, Buena Vista, and West Pottawattamie Counties. The following report provides specific accomplishments from each of the respective counties where the programs were held. Buena Vista County For the Buena Vista County Career Pathways Academy Program, youth in grades 7-12 who were new to 4-H or have been in 4-H for a few years were targeted. Career Pathways Academy was advertised in a variety of settings; through the iJAG (Iowa Jobs for America's Graduates) Program at the high school, middle school programs, 4-H Connect (multicultural youth engagement retreat), and a family night to talk about this program to youth and their families. The program reached a total of 20 youth: 3 males, 17 females. The ethnicity of the youth is listed as 14 being Hispanic/Latino while 6 are not Hispanic/Latino. Regarding race, 9 identified as white, 1 identified as black, 1 identified as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 3 identified as Asian, and 6 preferred not to state their race. Wapello County The program reached 13 students: 2 males, 11 females. Regarding ethnicity, 9 are Hispanic while 4 are not Hispanic. Regarding race 1 identified as biracial (white and American Indian), 1 identified as biracial (white and black), 2 identified as white, 2 identified as black, 2 preferred not to state, and 5 did not state. One other male student attended only one session who identified as Hispanic and did not state his race. Only one student had previously participated in 4-H. The target audience was reached through an educational program that included methods such as formal classroom instruction addressing topics of career exploration, financial literacy, resume building, and entrepreneurship. A local businessman visited from Villeda Construction to speak to the youth about entrepreneurship while the youth also visited various other businesses and organizations in the area. There were opportunities to visit IowaWORKS, the Ottumwa Regional Health Center, Community 1st Credit Union, Vermeer Corporation in Pella, and the VA Medical Center in Iowa City. Participants also heard from two local college students and one recent college graduate about how to prepare for college and career post-graduation. West Pottawattamie County The program reached 26students: 11males, 15females.The ethnicity of the youth were listed as 2 being Hispanic/Latino while 24 are not Hispanic/Latino. Regarding race, 2 identified as American Indian, 18 identified as white, 2 were considered two or more races and 3 did not know what race they were. I had 4 youth attend only the first session. Youth were reached through an educational program that included methods such as classroom instruction (i.e., career exploration, financial literacy, resume building, entrepreneurship), guest speakers, demonstrations and job tours. Changes/Problems:The original project proposal indicated that we would be delivering the program in West Pottawattamie and Black Hawk Counties in the state of Iowa. However, when the project period began the Extension Director and youth development staff who would have been supporting the project left the organization. Therefore, the project pivoted to carryout the program still in West Pottawattamie County but also in Buena Vista and Wapello Counties instead. All of these counties were identified based on their high percentage of BIPOC youth, English Langugage Learners, immigrant and refugee populations, and low socioeconomic households. Now that new staff have been hired in Black Hawk County, efforts to begin engaging them in future Career Pathways Academy programming is underway. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training provided over the past year has been focused mainly on training our team of 4-H Career Pathways Academy staff as well as AmeriCorps members in the six educational lessons focused on career assessments, financial aid, resume building, mock job interviews, entrepreneurship, and careers in agriculture. Professional development was offered each month to staff and AmeriCorps members focused on positive youth development, effective youth-adult partnerships, reruiting and retaining untapped youth audiences, and the National 4-H Thrive and Beyond Ready Initiatives. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Most of the Career Pathways Academy sessions were completed in summer 2024. However, due to staffing changes one of the program sites completed its final session in Octoboer 2024. All program sites completed and pre and post assessment using the National 4-H college and career readiness common measures survey. Due the final program site completing the program in October, data is still being analyzed. Once completed, results will be disseminated through Iowa 4-H, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, North Central 4-H College and Career Readiness working group, Iowa 4-H Foundation, as well as the National Association for Extension 4-H Youth Development Professionals at next year's annual conference. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Year 2 of the program will launch in January at the majority of the sites and wrap up during the summer. Additionally, youth who have completed Year 1 of the program will be encouraged and supported to pursue a State Science and Technology Fair of Iowa science project at the junior and senior levels. These fairs will take place in February and March 2025.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The following has been accomplished as a state-level program in Year 1 under the goals of the grant: Youth participants have been able to explore career pathways in agriculture through their monthly career exploration sessions, agricultural business site visits, as well as visits to college campuses to explore degrees and certificate programs in various agricultural disciplines. Throughout the six monthly sessions youth engaged in skill development sessions that allowed to build their leadership, communication, teambuilding, civic engagement and problem solving skills. Youth were able to lead small group discussions in the entrepreneurship session and when they represented their local 4-H program as delegates to the IGNITE by 4-H Youth Summit. Youth developed their written and oral communication skills developing written resumes, participating in learning reflections, and engaging in mock job interviews. Each of the three sites reported engaging youth in service learning opportunities in their local communities at the local pet shelters, schools, and community improvement projects. Additionally, the sessions were youth focused to help them have work as a team to identify and address issues facing their own pathways to becoming ready for higher educational pathways, work, and "adulting". Each Career Pathways Academy site engaged in approximately 3 work site visits that allowed them to engage with local professionals and businesses to explore career pathways and build their professional network. Local professionals also met the youth to share about their pathways to creating their own businesses and volunteered to help with the mock job interviews, helping to build youth-adult relationships. Youth from each of the Career Pathways Academy sites were selected to attend the IGNITE by 4-H Youth Summit and engage in the agriscience track to explore careers, hands-on learning, and connect with professionals at the national level working in agriculture. In Year 1, 59 youth in grades 7-12 engaged in the six-month immersive Career Pathways Academy from three Iowa communities. More demographic information is outlined in the county reports below. 4-H AmeriCorps members were hired to support carrying out these programs as well as recruiting and retaining the youth participants. Family Night and Capstone events were held bilingually for families. The Family Night event serves as a recruitment opportunity for families to explore Career Pathways Academy. The Capstone event is the culminating session for youth and their families to share and reflect on their learning experiences in the program and celebrate their achievements. Youth participants were required to attend a minimum of 5 out of the six monthly career exploration sessions. 4-H Career Pathways Academy participants from West Pottawattamie attended the State Science and Technology Fair of Iowa to learning more about the event. Youth are excited to engage more with the event in 2024-2025. 10 youth applied for and were selected to attend the Ignite by 4-H Youth Summit in Washington, D.C. in March 2024. The following provides additional detail from local staff in the three counties regarding how these goals were accomplished. Buena Vista County In Buena Vista County, we had a session once a month (January-June 2024)for Career Pathways Academy, but offered other educational opportunities to youth in this program. Our first session for Career Pathways Academy, youth participated in an exploratory quiz to identify career fields they may be interested in. Youth also participated in a tour of Buena Vista Regional Medical Center where they learned about different career pathwaysoffered while gaining hands-on experiences exploring a career pathways in healthcare. For the second session of Career Pathways Academy, youth were able to create a vision board of their future career aspirations. Youth participants also got to engage with students at Iowa Central Community College to explore agricultural careers. Ten 4-H Career Pathways Academy participants applied and were selected to attend the Ignite by 4-H Yout Summit in March in Washington, D.C. During this summit, youth had the opportunity to participate in agricultural career exploratory workshops, engage with agricultural professionals during thecareer connection meals, and explore a variety of career opportunities through tours, educational workshops, keynote speakers, and action planning presentations. During the third session, youth were able to participate in hands-on financial literacy lessons that introduced concepts such as FAFSA, scholarships, and paying for college to the participants. For the 4thlesson of Career Pathways Academy, youth were able to developtheir own resume to be used for school, awards, and job applications. During the 5thsession, youth exploredentrepreneurship and starting their own business and were abl . Youth then got the opportunity to listen to the stories of some local business owners. During the 6thsession, youth and their families celebrated their success with a capstone event. During this capstone event, youth were presented scholarships and participated in a career exploration dinner where local professionals came in to talk one on one with youth and families about their career and journey. During the summer, we will be providing other opportunities like visiting county and state fairs, virtual reality activities, and service learning opportunities. Wapello County With the help of the local college and career transition coach, we recruited youth to participate in Career Pathways Academy in Wapello County. Only 1 of the 13 students had participated in 4-H prior. That student's parent has since commented that the student felt a sense of belonging in Career Pathways Academy, and is excited to continue being involved in 4-H as a result. One of the experiences offered to 4-H Career Pathways Academy participants was a career exploration field trip to the VA Medical Centerin Iowa City. Following the visit one youth participant sharedthat theyhad previously ruled out nursing as a career. However, after hearing about the variety of careers in healthcareduring the visit, she is reconsidering nursing. Two youth from Wapello County attended the Ignite by 4-H Conference in Washington, D.C. where they learned how to be change agents for their community. These youth engaged in the agriscience educational track and were able to learn more about the variety of careers in agriulture-both current and future. These youth hadn't considered a career pathwayin agriculture but after participating in workshops and hearing from guest speakers they are now reconsidering. West Pottawattamie County In our six monthly sessions, we talked about soft skills and how these can apply to every day jobs and careers. We also worked on our communication skills by doing ice breakers and team building activities, along with presenting our job skills and resume to the class. The youth participants were introduced to drones and how Ag careers can utilize this new technology, along with a demonstration and possible certification in the future. Two of the youth participantsalso hadthe opportunity to attend the IGNITE 4-H Summit and all of the youth participants were able to attend the state-level Iowa4-H Youth Conference. A handful visited Iowa State Science & Technology Fair, along with a tour of animal science and agriculture and biosystems engineering departments at Iowa State University. Site visit experiences to various local businesses included theShelby Vet Clinic, Lauritzen Gardens, Midlands Humane Society and watchinga drone demonstration spray a farm field (Universal Aerial Solutions, LLC).

Publications