Youth Development

Building a ‘spark’ in 4-H for urban and underrepresented families

Traditional programs in Oregon State University Extension Service 4-H Youth Development in Jackson County have seen success over the years. Yet, the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the deadly and destructive 2020 Almeda fire, shed ...

Jul 2022 | Impact Story

Career Connect Day draws 200 students and job seekers in eastern Oregon

For decades, schools in rural Umatilla and Morrow counties have experienced declining high school graduation and college-going rates. More support and resources are needed for high school students to be prepared for college or ...

Jun 2022 | Impact Story

Warm Springs students explore ecology in collaboration with OSU Extension

There’s concern among tribal members of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs that youths aren’t getting enough outdoor and science educational opportunities, especially opportunities with connections to tribal culture, values and ...

May 2022 | Impact Story

4-H Investigators at Home provides STEAM activities to students

During the 2020-21 school year, most Oregon students were participating in school through distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although online learning is an important means to continue education, it often lacks ...

Feb 2023 | Impact Story

Students enriched through OSU Extension Sherman County after-school program

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the Sherman County School in Moro to eliminate its successful three-day-a-week after-school program. The rural school of about 250 students in grades pre-kindergarten through 12th didn’t attempt the ...

Apr 2022 | Impact Story

Clackamas County youths reconnect with outdoors through OSU Extension forestry education programs

By the summer of 2021, after more than a year of remote learning due to COVID-19, many Clackamas County elementary and middle school students hadn’t experienced hands-on enrichment activities and field trips that enhance ...

Mar 2022 | Impact Story

Teen learning experiences transformed by dive into VR app creation

Coupled with broad, societal misconceptions about food and agriculture, an aging crisis is threatening farming. According to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, the average age of an American farmer is 57, 10 years older than the ...

Feb 2022 | Impact Story

Institute provides nature experiences, education for Portland-area youth

Research shows that people of color are far less likely to engage in nature-based outdoor recreation activities, with historic discrimination being a large underlying factor. People of color are three times more likely than white ...

Feb 2023 | Impact Story

Juntos helps shy eighth-grader transform into historic student body president

Latino/Hispanic students comprise the largest minority group at The Dalles High School – 37% of the total enrollment. In 2012, Oregon State University Extension’s Open Campus program launched Juntos (“together” in Spanish), ...

Feb 2022 | Impact Story

'Healing Through Art' show provides outlet for Portland-area youth

In the summer of 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing and marches for social justice taking place across the United States, youth in the Portland metro area were turning to art to express themselves. Around the ...

Nov 2021 | Impact Story