Joining us each month on Behind the Clover, Real Talk with four h Pros. As we put out new episodes monthly where we invite experienced staff from four h around the state of Illinois to share a sneak peek into a day in the life of an EPC, an educator, state specialist, county director, etcetera.
Amy Henschen: 00:37Once we wade through the story of Illinois four h, our goal is to reach out and explore four h on a national scale, state by state. Who knows? Maybe even on an international stage as well.
Ryan Littlejohn: 00:47Our goal is to shed light on the four h experience and all of its diversity and hopes to bring some solidarity. And maybe, just maybe, we'll crack a joke or two. But let's get real. Sometimes four h is more fun than a barrel of monkeys. These are real four h stories for real four h folks.
Ryan Littlejohn: 01:04Let's stay sane together.
Henry Craft: 01:09So we'll be doing a full introduction later in the episode. But just so you know who you're listening to, we wanna give you a brief name and where we're tuning in from for our episode today. To start, I'm Henry. I'm coming to you from Dewitt County in my office where we're currently replacing completely our junkie furnace. Hashtag that's just four h.
Henry Craft: 01:29So if you hear an overwhelming amount of, you know why.
Amy Henschen: 01:33And I'm Amy Henson coming to you from the Kane County 4 H office where we're also doing replacement on carpet this time.
Ryan Littlejohn: 01:40And coming from the beautiful, bright, sunny Southern Illinois. I'm Ryan Littlejohn from Wayne County.
Henry Craft: 01:48Awesome. So we are gonna be your facilitators as you come along on this journey with us through, getting to know four h on a deeper level. So this, like I said earlier, is behind the clover real talk with four h pros. And our goal with this podcast is to really shed light on what is four h. And this is for four h folks that work in the field that see it day in and day out.
Henry Craft: 02:15And we all have a slightly different experience. And so what we plan to do is over the next few months, really dive deep into all the positions within Illinois four h and and give people an opportunity to tell the story. Because oftentimes, we're doing things in different counties, and we don't know what other people are doing and exactly how their life works. So in all that, we wanna make it light. We wanna have fun, and that's just kinda who we are.
Henry Craft: 02:46We're gonna make some jokes. We're gonna ask silly questions, but then, hopefully, we're going to get to show ourselves in the lighthearted fashion that we all like to show up in. So we're gonna start our episode with a little bit of spitball. We want you to kinda get to know what we're doing in our daily. So, Ryan, what's new for you, man?
Henry Craft: 03:10What are you up to?
Ryan Littlejohn: 03:11Currently, like, just before I got onto this, I was looking up funny jokes to tell my club leaders at their next leaders meeting. I was like, we gotta start with some fun. So here's here's a good one for you. What do you call a grumpy cow?
Henry Craft: 03:24Moody. Yeah. We will likely have some dad jokes. Hey. I think that's true.
Henry Craft: 03:29It'll happen. It's good.
Ryan Littlejohn: 03:31If we don't, I mean, we're not we're not having fun in our jobs. Right? Indeed. You've got it. You gotta always make it a fun a fun thing for you and for the kids all around us.
Ryan Littlejohn: 03:40So that's that's the whole point. What about you, Henry? Amy, were you guys anything fun, exciting?
Amy Henschen: 03:46Well, I work for the state office. My work life is a little different than yours. I wish I was looking up, fun activities today. I'm sending out a really exciting woodworking project update to the state. That's what I was working on just before we got together.
Amy Henschen: 03:59And I'm working on planning some training for our staff on setting setting up your fair book. Really riveting stuff. Setting up your fair book, which Ryan's gonna help with. Some training on volunteer management coming up for some of our educator level staff. So I'm kinda working on some of that staff development stuff.
Amy Henschen: 04:16Awesome. What about you, Henry?
Henry Craft: 04:17Oh, man. You know what? You know what's funny? I have been leaning into my eccentric educator teacher repertoire. So I dusted off my AeroGarden.
Henry Craft: 04:30So I've got some hydroponics running in my office. I've been bugging everybody by flying drones, you know, the prehistoric beehive sound, my Lego collection. Amy, I know you're a fan. Yeah. We got I think I had three or four that I got for over the holidays.
Henry Craft: 04:49And because I really do actually do a real job, I've been coordinating, like, 220 plus fertile eggs so we can take them into the classroom for an embryology program. So needless to say, my job is pretty diverse on a daily basis. I never really really quite know what's coming to me. And today, I also get to record a podcast. So this is super fun, and I'm stoked that I get to live this life.
Henry Craft: 05:18So that's a little bit about what we're all doing. We hope to do that on a on a monthly basis with our guests as well and really just kinda get to know what we're up to and what they're up to. So to the actual introduction side of things, I want to take some time in this episode for all of our listeners to really get deep deeper a little bit with your facilitators. So I'm gonna go ahead and go first and just give everyone kind of my fuller introduction, and then I'm gonna pass it off. And I want to have you have a chance for you guys to get to know Ryan and Amy because they're super awesome folks.
Henry Craft: 06:02So I'm Henry Crafts, originally from one of the counties that I am currently a four h youth development educator for, and that is DeWitt County. I live in that county as well. But don't fear. I have gotten out of DeWitt County in my life, and, I've seen parts of the world. Lived and worked in Wisconsin and parts of Africa and even lived in Indonesia with my family.
Henry Craft: 06:28So, kinda like a boomerang, though, I just came right on back. I wanna say we got a couple questions, and I'll give you a sneak because I wanna give Ryan and Amy their time as well. But we're gonna have a conversation about two very, very important subjects here, folks. Okay? First is toilet paper over or under, and dress pants or sweatpants.
Henry Craft: 06:53These are two very important questions that will run the thread of our interviews and really give you a sneak of kind of our humor in a nutshell. So I want to go ahead and give Ryan a chance to do a little introduction and share with us who he is.
Ryan Littlejohn: 07:09Yeah. I'm Ryan Littlejohn. I like I said, I'm from Wayne County, but I never grew up in Illinois. I'm a Kansas boy at heart. I'm from the great state of you probably know it as Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, but that's really not what we're known for.
Ryan Littlejohn: 07:25Right? We're we got we got wheat and cows. Actually, where I moved from in Western Kansas, we had more cows in the county than people. It's kinda my preferred thing. But it's it's great.
Ryan Littlejohn: 07:37I grew up in 4 H in Harvey County, Newton, Kansas, right smack dab in the middle of Kansas. Did that for, what was it, twelve, thirteen, fourteen years? I started four h. Our four h had ran seven to 18. And because my birthday fell funny, I got an extra year, so I got to show when I was 19.
Ryan Littlejohn: 07:55So I I got a little bit more four h years than a lot of people do around here. Then I went off to school at Kansas State University, the wildcats. It's the best part about about my whole college experiences. I played in the band at K State, and I spent more time on the field with Bill Snyder than any of the football players spent on the field with Bill Snyder. So that's my one claim to fame about college.
Ryan Littlejohn: 08:21But then I met met my wife. We moved here. I now run a four h program in Southern Illinois, my wife's home county. It's been great. We farm, and that's about all I do.
Ryan Littlejohn: 08:31And, like, I got, like, these really cool fun facts. You'll find always find something new about me. Yeah. I wear a size fifteen shoe. That's pretty cool.
Ryan Littlejohn: 08:39But I also play the piano and pipe organ. Over Christmas, I played a played it at a church, and I broke the organ. I don't know. I don't know how much longer that'll be happening, but but we'll see. I'll let you know what we find out.
Henry Craft: 08:51Ryan, was your feet too big?
Ryan Littlejohn: 08:52My feet was too big. Yeah. That was the problem. They have yeah. That that's what it was.
Henry Craft: 08:58So That's awesome. That's so cool that you played
Ryan Littlejohn: 09:01the organ. I know. And it's like, when you say, like, oh, I play the organ, people kinda look at you funny. They're like, what are you talking about? Like, there's so many ways you could go with that.
Ryan Littlejohn: 09:12But I say, okay. It's a pipe organ. You know, the big thing in a church that's got lots of metal. Like, that oh, yeah. Yeah.
Ryan Littlejohn: 09:18I just people don't call it an organ. They call
Henry Craft: 09:20it pipe organ. Just don't break it.
Ryan Littlejohn: 09:23Yeah. Just don't break it.
Henry Craft: 09:24Yeah.
Amy Henschen: 09:24Right? You had one job, Ryan. You had one job.
Ryan Littlejohn: 09:27One job. Play one Christmas Eve service without doing something wrong.
Henry Craft: 09:32Yeah. I know.
Ryan Littlejohn: 09:34Oh, I'll never live in there.
Henry Craft: 09:35Pipe organ. Shoot. Amy, what about you?
Amy Henschen: 09:41Well, I'm Amy Henschin. I'm coming to you from Kane County, Illinois where I live now, but I grew up in 4 H in Lake County, Illinois. Shout out on the border with Wisconsin and Lake Michigan. It's a great place to grow up. And then I fled the state and moved to Colorado as an adult and stayed there for a while working for four h, did the Peace Corps.
Amy Henschen: 10:01And like Henry, I just found myself back here. Called by four h opportunity and, my family who I just couldn't spend time away from. So I'm back in the Western Suburbs, now I grew up in the Northern Suburbs Of Chicago. And I'm now serving as the four h evaluation staff development specialist here in Illinois. But I've been a four h educator here in Illinois, and I also, worked for four h in Colorado as well.
Amy Henschen: 10:27But excited to be back in Illinois and rock and rolling with y'all.
Ryan Littlejohn: 10:30I got a question.
Henry Craft: 10:32Which
Amy Henschen: 10:32your What's question?
Ryan Littlejohn: 10:33The Northern Half of of Chicago or the Western Half? Like, what's what's your favorite?
Amy Henschen: 10:39Oh, I'm I'm gonna be a betray I just bought a house in Western Suburbs, but, like, Northern Suburbs forever. I know that sounds terrible. If I could've got taken my job there, I would've done that. They're great. Proximity to Lake Michigan is you can't be beat in Lake County.
Amy Henschen: 10:57So I love those Northern Suburbs. And then you're, like, midway between Chicago, Milwaukee, which also two wonderful cities if you need some entertainment. So, like, I miss my Lake County days. I'm not gonna lie, but the Western Suburbs definitely just just below them on the on the list.
Henry Craft: 11:13And we just lost a third of Region 1. That's no big deal. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine.
Henry Craft: 11:19Amy, where did you where did you do your Peace Corps?
Amy Henschen: 11:22I had Peace Corps in, South America and Paraguay, One of only two landlocked countries in South America, fun fact. So surrounded by rivers. And number one in hydroelectric, 98% of their electricity by, dams, two big dams on the river. So yay. Paraguay fun facts.
Henry Craft: 11:44Awesome. Well, that is a a quick and dirty introduction to our facilitators. You will undoubtedly get to know them much more, throughout the series of our podcast. But on to the very, very important questions. And I'm gonna go first because I'm just gonna ruin it.
Henry Craft: 12:03Toilet paper over or under? Okay. So that's the question. Take some time. Think on it.
Henry Craft: 12:11It's a very, very important one. I am most definitively and assuredly a toilet paper over kinda guy. Oh my god. Oh my god. I'm judging everyone right now.
Henry Craft: 12:24So I I don't know that there's even any reason for this, but I am so judgy about the toilet paper over thing. If you don't care about it or you are under, just know that I'm gonna be thinking about you for at least the next ten minutes. And, man, it's it's so funny. Because, like, oh, like, over. Right?
Henry Craft: 12:47Like, you gotta be able to that's how the toilet paper gets that's how it goes. Right? Of course, that's physics. It goes both ways. But, man, where I'm at.
Ryan Littlejohn: 12:56You should just be able to pull it. Okay? Agreed. That's I'm an I'm an over type person too. And you should be able just to pull the toilet paper.
Ryan Littlejohn: 13:03I shouldn't have to hit the toilet paper roll over and over to try to get a piece of toilet paper. Also, I don't want that toilet paper under that's floating around in the wind collecting all of those other people's germs that could be floating around in the bathroom.
Henry Craft: 13:19What? It's clearly a sanitation issue. Yes. It is.
Amy Henschen: 13:22Know it. Like, you're still getting that problem on the over. That is not an under only problem. Y'all are not Amy.
Henry Craft: 13:28Okay. I just assumed solidarity on this.
Amy Henschen: 13:31No. I've got two words for you. Cats and small children. If you have cats or small children in your home, if it's over, they just put their little pawsies on it, and then you've got a whole roll of toilet paper on the floor. And pawsies if they're kids or if they're cats.
Amy Henschen: 13:46But if you're if it's under, they can't do that with their little pawsies, so you're not wasting a bunch of toilet paper. And, like, you got and then also, I don't know if you guys know how much toilet paper small children use. Insane amounts. If you let put it with the under, they it's a little bit more difficult to do. So they are more, you know, conservative with their toilet paper usage and not clogging up your toilet with, like, 80 pounds of toilet paper.
Amy Henschen: 14:15So that's all I'm saying. I appreciate I appreciate your perspectives, but cats and small children. That's all
Henry Craft: 14:21I know. Have to say, I hate that you are making sense right now. It is really hurting me because that logic you're appealing to something very, very near and dear to my heart, which is logic, and you're making sense.
Amy Henschen: 14:36Yeah. I have seen oh, no. And if you don't have cats with small children, go to town on over.
Henry Craft: 14:40I do have
Amy Henschen: 14:41cats, though. I don't Also, I have confirmed because I like being right, and I think I'm actually wrong on this, which makes me sad. The patents for the toilet paper roll holder is over. But, like, I just throw in the cats are small children. I think there's an argument the other way.
Henry Craft: 14:57But I feel like you hacked that for parents right there. You're just like, oh, yeah. I'm I'm smarter than this patent because they ruin it if we don't have it this way, and you just solved it. And I hate that.
Ryan Littlejohn: 15:09Yeah. And you're totally right. I had no idea that there was an actual patent, first off, on the toilet paper holder. So that's a new something. You always learn something every day.
Ryan Littlejohn: 15:17But sure enough, it it shows it going over.
Henry Craft: 15:23Oh my gosh.
Ryan Littlejohn: 15:24And that you should pull one piece at a time.
Amy Henschen: 15:27One piece at a time? Who are we kidding here?
Ryan Littlejohn: 15:29Well, that goes into the age old question. Are you a folder or are you a buncher?
Henry Craft: 15:33Oh, it's kinda like the do you wash your hands or not? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, jeez. Folder now.
Henry Craft: 15:43Folder. I'm a I'm a folder. I'm a folder for for sheer practicality sake. But, yeah, didn't used to be. Wasn't always.
Henry Craft: 15:50I was a crumpler.
Ryan Littlejohn: 15:51I
Henry Craft: 15:51Ryan posed a question, and he's not even gonna answer it. What's up?
Ryan Littlejohn: 15:55That's because I I I'm a buncher.
Henry Craft: 15:58Who has who has time
Ryan Littlejohn: 15:59to sit there and fold it over and over and over? Like, come on. Get on it with it. Move out. We got cows to move.
Ryan Littlejohn: 16:05That's what I was told.
Henry Craft: 16:07Oh gosh. I like this one. I think this is a keeper. Well, now you've you've learned a lot. Leave TMI straight in TMI.
Henry Craft: 16:14It's good.
Ryan Littlejohn: 16:15On this next one. K? Dress pants or sweatpants. I'm always gonna go dress pants because I have never had a pair of dress pants rip on me, let me down. K?
Ryan Littlejohn: 16:27They're also very comfortable if you buy the right brand. Dockers has a very comfortable, like, men's khaki, and it's just fantastic. I could sleep in those. They're so soft. K?
Ryan Littlejohn: 16:40Dress pants over jeans, over sweatpants, over everything from now on. Not changing it. Not changing it. I I wear dress pants with my boots.
Henry Craft: 16:51That's so formal of you, Ryan, but I see the practicality of it. I can't say that I haven't ripped a pair of khaki pants, though. I my mechanism for getting into a car is very leg spread manspreading, and so that's that's a problem for me. So, anyway, Amy, what do you got? What do you think?
Henry Craft: 17:11Are you are you drunk
Amy Henschen: 17:13with sweatpants? I am a sweatpants 100%, and I probably I wouldn't have said that before COVID, but then I discovered I also have discovered there are sweatpants that from far away look like dress pants. Super win. So, like, I don't feel bad about wearing them to work. Like, I was like, do you know anything weird about me to my coworkers?
Amy Henschen: 17:32And they were like, no. I'm like, yes. They didn't even notice these are sweatpants. So I'm on team sweatpants that look like dress pants so I can kinda look sort of okay and passively not a hobo, but also be cozy as all get out.
Henry Craft: 17:47Is that, like, the jagging phenomenon? Is that what that is? Or
Amy Henschen: 17:50I mean, they're just, like, tailored. They're not as baggy and tailored, so they're don't and don't have a cuff, so they don't look quite as sweat panty, if that makes sense.
Henry Craft: 18:00Okay. So for me, dress pants or sweat pants. I am most definitely a chameleon dress for vacation kinda guy. I used to be in music performance in college, and so dressing up was just my thing. While, you know, some kids were wearing PJs to class, I was in suits and ties and tuxedos.
Henry Craft: 18:23But my preference is now very clearly sweatpants, and specifically long johns. It doesn't real so okay. Picture this. Has anybody seen the Goldbergs?
Ryan Littlejohn: 18:37Yes.
Henry Craft: 18:37Have you seen? Oh, gosh. Alright. So you won't get this reference, Amy, but you should go back and check it out. She was shaking her head.
Henry Craft: 18:46The dad, when he hits the door, his pants are down, man. He hits in his under he's in his skivvies in the recliner. And I'm not far from that after the threshold, but it's more of a change. I'm less of a in the skivvies guy, but that's that's the vibe. Sometimes it just be like that.
Henry Craft: 19:08You hit the threshold, and you gotta get out of the the stuffy pants. But that's me. TMI? Probably. But we're already there, folks.
Henry Craft: 19:17It's fine.
Ryan Littlejohn: 19:18We we passed that when we asked about folding or bunching, so we're good. We're so my last name is Littlejohn. It's just a fun fact about Longjohns here. Longjohns to me are donuts. Okay?
Ryan Littlejohn: 19:29The Longjohns that, like, you're talking about are, like, long underwear that you wear under your your clothes.
Henry Craft: 19:36Truly. Thermals. Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan Littlejohn: 19:38Yeah. Thermals. Right? So, like, I'd never heard the word long johns for, like, those long thermal pants until I moved here to Illinois. My wife's family all thought my last name was Long John, like, you know, the underwear you wear under, not Little John.
Ryan Littlejohn: 19:57So I feel like all my Christmas presents this year, they couldn't remember my name. So they the name they came up with me one time was Chad. So they call me Chad Long John, and all of my Christmas presents say said to Chad Long John.
Henry Craft: 20:14No. We will call you by your true real name, Ryan, little John. Don't worry. You are you are a Littlejohn to us. That's
Ryan Littlejohn: 20:24It it's Ryan Littlejohn. That's what that's how I'm known. I'm not known by Ryan. I'm Ryan Littlejohn.
Amy Henschen: 20:27No. You have to say his whole name because it's satisfying to say the whole thing.
Henry Craft: 20:31Exactly. So
Amy Henschen: 20:32you never say, hey, Ryan. You say, like, hey, Ryan, little John. And I talked to Ryan, little John. I saw Ryan, little John. You gotta give the whole thing because it's just satisfying to say.
Henry Craft: 20:41Mhmm. Is that like it's very Shakespearean. It just rolls off the tongue. Ryan, little John. Okay.
Henry Craft: 20:48Now we have have just gone through it. TMI due to death, dear listener. This is is the fun part of the the episode, but we wanna get serious a little bit too on occasion. It will still be lighthearted. But things that we are going to be sharing, again, with our interviewees as we bring them in, we wanna ask a few very pointed questions.
Henry Craft: 21:16Namely, we wanna get to know them in how they got their start in four h. And then and then what is four h? How are they summarizing and selling, so to speak, four h to the community? What are what what do they understand four h to be? And so I want you to have a chance to hear it from us first, what what your facilitators answers are to those questions.
Henry Craft: 21:42So how did you how did you get your start in four h? Amy, I would love to hear from you. How'd you start? Like, what was the the impetus for your four h journey?
Amy Henschen: 21:54Yeah. I I don't think I ever thought I'd end up working for four h when I was a kid, but I was in four h. So I I started four h when I was eight and the Warren Hatch ups four h club in Gurnee, Illinois. My mom was our club leader, and her mom was my mom's club leader before her in Wildwood at the home mets. So I was a four h kid, but I grew up in the suburbs.
Amy Henschen: 22:14So we weren't doing, like, the things that a lot of people associate with four h, like ag and, animals, except cats. I did do cats. I was doing all the other projects. So I was doing woodworking and horticulture and visual arts and reading. And, like, you name a project, I at least tried it for one year.
Amy Henschen: 22:33My biggest project area that I loved was, like, the natural resources stuff. We used to have a project called prairie plants in Illinois that was, like, my jam. I had a big prairie garden in the backyard that, like, my my relatives would come and be like, why do you guys have this big plot of weeds in your backyard? And I was, like, mortally offended by this. I was like, those are native plants, and they're beautiful.
Amy Henschen: 22:52So I was I was in four h for ten years, had a lot of great experiences in the program, did some stuff on the state level as a kid because I was pretty go getter kid. Like, went to National four h congress. The four h was great. Taught me community service, taught me, public speaking, like, did really well on that. But kinda thought, like, yep.
Amy Henschen: 23:12Four h has set me up for success as an adult. I probably won't have much to do with this. Maybe I'll volunteer for it in the future, but kind of moved along out of my way. Ended up going to school for public relations, did that for six years, and then was like, I miss interacting with people and teaching them things. So I joined the Peace Corps as a kind of like a reset for my life and ended up in Paraguay doing youth development work.
Amy Henschen: 23:34And I basically formed a I was like, I'm basically gonna start a four h club in my town, even though it's not four h. So we had started a youth group and did a bunch of things that, like, I didn't four h because they just didn't have that there and use that model to teach kids leadership and give them a lot of opportunities that they didn't have and, like, really just fell in love with that. So from Paraguay, I started looking for work for when my commitment was up. You serve in the Peace Corps for, twenty seven months. So, like, my last couple of months, I was looking for jobs, and there was this job as a four h agent in this rural part of Southern Colorado called the San Luis Valley, and I had been there to hike a mountain, years prior and, like, just found the area charming and, like, good remote, if that makes sense.
Amy Henschen: 24:20Like, just, like, you can still get to stuff. They have a Walmart, but, like, it's not crazy. It's like a nice quiet pace of life, and there's mountains everywhere, and it was great. So I applied and got that job. So I found myself in Rural Colorado working for a six county area doing four h as a four h agent.
Amy Henschen: 24:37So I kinda got thrown back into that and loved it. Like, loved it. And so that's kind of how I came back, to four h and then did that for six years in Colorado before coming here to Illinois. So that's how I got my start. Ryan, why don't you share yours?
Ryan Littlejohn: 24:52I got my start in four h in 2007 when I joined the Lucky thirteen four h club in Harvey County, Kansas. It was the coolest thing ever because I was like this little kid, and I want I walked into my first meeting, and there was a bunch of other little kids and maybe, like, a few high school students. I was like, oh, this is awesome. Everyone's my age. I'm gonna have a lot of friends.
Ryan Littlejohn: 25:18It was really fun. I started with the dairy project. I showed dairy cattle. My great uncle and great grandpa ran a dairy farm. So I got to go pick out my first cow, and her name was Milkshake.
Ryan Littlejohn: 25:33But on her registration paper, there wasn't enough room for the e on Milkshake. So, really, her name is Milkshack to the American Holstein Association.
Henry Craft: 25:44Classic. Milkshack, baby. So
Ryan Littlejohn: 25:48I did that. I did I tell people I did, like, every general project there was because my mom was like, you have to try it at least once. I was very involved at the club level. I was club president and became a county ambassador, served on the four h council, went to four h camp. My favorite memories are are four h camp in Kansas.
Henry Craft: 26:12Listen. I appreciate you guys' stories so much because I think it highlights for me the diversity of four h. Right? So you got Ryan who's got a lot of the ag. A lot of people think about four h in that agricultural traditional sense.
Henry Craft: 26:30I mean, it makes sense. Four h has been around for over a hundred years. Right? But then you also got Amy who grew up in an urban environment, and it's it's just different. I mean, it's not not to say that folks in Region 1 don't do agricultural stuff.
Henry Craft: 26:47I don't mean to say that, but the totality of four h is is really robust. And I think that's something that our, the leader, Lisa Diaz of four h says all the time is, you know, four h is more than just one thing. It's a robust path to get kids interested and involved. And I really appreciate you guys sharing those stories, because I think it highlights perfectly the two perspectives of four h. Now mine's mine's really lackluster.
Henry Craft: 27:20My start in four h was I say I dabbled in it as a kid, which is ironic that I'm here now. But I was in a club for super brief time. I remember attending the local fair, and I I even remember going to meetings and things like that and and attending four h camp. That was amazing. I love our local camp.
Henry Craft: 27:41I think it's cool that that was part of your story too, Ryan. But, honestly, my start into four h was as a parent. My family and I moved back from Indonesia in 2018. And just for a variety of reasons, we were homeschoolers, still are homeschoolers, but four h plays a vital role in our curriculum. When we got involved with four h, we got involved fast.
Henry Craft: 28:05So my my wife reintroduced me to four h, and then I was a four h parent for four four years before, this position came about. And so, you know, my wife is a leader of a traditional club in and that's, you know, exec board, bank account kind of deal in our hometown, and and she's also leader of the Cloverbud club there. So, like I said, my my background being in higher ed, I always knew about extension. I knew about four h, but I came about it just slightly different. And I think that's the beauty of four h.
Henry Craft: 28:47Right? A four h is for everybody. And so I think that that transitions as well into our wrap up question. So we're getting towards the end of our episode here. But something that I really I want to pose to my two cofacilitators and share a little bit about, myself, which is what is four h?
Henry Craft: 29:11And in this question, we're really seeking to hear, you know, what's the elevator pitch? What is the brief description of four h? How do you sell it and get people to be a part of this life changing experience that we know as four h? So I wanna start, and I wanna hear Ryan, what's your what's your elevator pitch? What what is four h to you?
Ryan Littlejohn: 29:36Four h to me, and this is how I sell it to my parents, is it's a family thing. You know? It's not just you as a member. It's you as a member learning how to do something with help from leaders, extension staff, volunteers, but also your parents. You guy I mean, you you're a parent, Henry, as a four h dad.
Ryan Littlejohn: 29:57Yeah. I'm sure you help your kids learn different things about their projects. You're a team. As as a four h team in your family, you get you all get to learn something new, and your kids are growing from it. They're finding a sense of belonging, independence.
Ryan Littlejohn: 30:13They're learning skills that can last a lifetime that they've probably have learned from you or other volunteers, and that's a great thing. I mean, we look for positive influences. Four h is a great opportunity for kids to find a place with volunteers that create a positive influence, brings them to a certain level in life that can help them succeed, Henry or Amy, either one.
Amy Henschen: 30:44Well, I love that you kind of highlighted something that I think is so important to four h, and that's community. Like, four h is a community. You said a family. It's kind of the same idea. So it's a place where youth can feel like they belong.
Amy Henschen: 30:55They can make new friends. They can explore their interests, discover new interests that maybe they didn't even know existed or know that they had. And that was something that four h definitely did for me, and I think that's for a lot of kids. Like, I didn't know I could take pictures. I didn't know I could build stuff with my hands.
Amy Henschen: 31:10I didn't know this. I didn't know that. So I think that that's for me is something that's really important. And I think I you highlight, we have this great volunteer network. We have wonderful staff who are trained to support these kids and provide them with, like, a positive role model in their lives and provide them with support and guidance and kind of help them achieve their goals and learn about themselves and be leaders.
Amy Henschen: 31:34So I think four h is all of those things. I also think it's service. So much of our club program is focused on doing service in our communities. So it's really getting to know our local communities and being an important part of positive change in those communities even if it's with small community service projects. So that's another thing I love about four h.
Amy Henschen: 31:53And I think it can be what you need it to be. So if you need it to be a club, we're there for you. But if you need it to be, you know, a really specific focus program on something you're interested in, we have that too. Think that's something that's, like, difficult it's cool about four h, but it also makes it difficult to talk about because it's like, we are so many things. So pinning that down can be a little challenging to talk about sometimes.
Amy Henschen: 32:15But, yeah, I think we we have this model of positive youth development called the thrive model. And so I was, to sum things up, I mean, like, four each is a place where youth can learn to be thriving adults who have the skills they need to succeed in life. So that's kind of how I, like, take it and and put it together. But I love this program, and I I, like, I struggle sometimes to really convey all of all that it is into, like, one little pitch. So I'm interested to hear more people's pitches as this show goes on to kinda help narrow mine down too.
Henry Craft: 32:46I I really like that your guys' it it's feels very that's what I would wanna hear as a parent. Right? As, like, hey. This is a community, and it really is. I mean, like, four h people stick together, and four h people get with four h people.
Henry Craft: 33:01Like, it's just you find your folks and you support each other. And I think that's really the a cool part about it. As I think about my answer, and it's probably indicative of my time spent with in the schools recently. I've been doing a lot of truly almost sales pitches for four h, and I and I summarized it kinda like this. So four h to me is a program with tons of history, lots of experience investing in kids.
Henry Craft: 33:30And like many great things that have been around for a hundred plus years, it's in the process of evolving. And anything that's that old has to to survive. So I say four h is a place to try new things and learn new skills and to find new community. Because you can become expert in a couple of things or get exposure to a ton of things, and you find the folks that are interested in your spark, and you kinda group up together. So no matter what your interest is, there's something for you in four h.
Henry Craft: 34:04So this is the part where I say, okay, kids, earmuffs because it's not quite you know, learning's not as fun. But but to the parents and teachers out there, we're about teaching and learning. I mean, that's the core of who we are. Likely, your kids have seen us at school or in the community bringing programs that augment their learning with hands on practical experiences, like finding out how to explore career path and paying bills in a program like real welcome to the real world or even actually getting to be a part of raising livestock in one of our embryology programs. You know, four h isn't just sows, plows, and cows.
Henry Craft: 34:42It's robust and full of potential just like your kiddo. So that's really the the summary that I put on four h as a whole because it is you can tell from even just your facilitators' answers. You know, there are folks that have been in four h for a long time, and they've got history, and they have found their family and their involvement in a place, a a community, so to speak. And then you've got folks that maybe are are coming into that community. And, you know, four h, we all know it's alphabet soup.
Henry Craft: 35:18Right? There's a lot of things to learn. There's a lot of insider information. And so what I encourage people to do is really just come in and find someone, to walk with. And so that's really what I see as four h.
Henry Craft: 35:32And and the beauty really is is what Ryan and and Amy highlighted, which is is a community portion of it. And and I love that about four h. It's really about the whole family experience. So, guys, this has been an awesome first episode. I'm stoked that I get to go on this journey with with Ryan and Amy.
Henry Craft: 35:54We started this ideation in the fall, and and, honestly, Ryan has been thinking about this for for so long. And we're just excited to bring behind the clover real talk with four h pros to you. This is truly a labor of love for four h and extension in general. We hope that you enjoyed walking with us and getting to know us as facilitators and learning a little bit about what we plan to do with your time. So join us next next month as we begin our series of interviewing the various positions within Illinois four h and experience the world of four h from somebody else's shoes because these are real four h stories for real four h folks.