Beyond the farm 4-Hers’ project earns them trip to nation’s capital

A project aimed at informing young people about the many career opportunities available in agriculture recently landed five 4-Hers a trip to Washington, D.C.

4-Hers Sydney and Addison Mitchell, daughters of David and Kim Greenwald- Mitchell of Waterville, and Olivia Balfanz, daughter of Missy and Erron Balfanz of Belle Plaine, Kendra Blaschko, daughter of Jo and Chris Blaschko of Le Center, and Amelia Schatz, daughter of Sue and Lonnie Schatz of Le Center, spent two years researching current agricultural careers that go beyond the farmyard and took their findings to Minnesota’s 4-H Science of Ag Challenge in 2017 and again 2018 under the project title “Beyond the Farm.”

Through self-made videos and a 20-minute presentation, the young women inform their audience about the abundant, non-farming career opportunities in the world of agriculture in hopes that more youth will consider these abundant job choices.

According to 4-H Coach Kim Greenwald-Mitchell, the team’s research, findings, and presentation had to meet the strict requirements of Minnesota’s Science of Ag Challenge.

“The MN Science of Ag project has teams of youth identifying an agricultural problem in their community and finding a solution,” Greenwald- Mitchell explained. “The problem they identified is that people don’t.....

To see more on this story pick up the January 31, 2019 print edition of the Life or Enterprise papers.