Extension Office hires new 4-H agent
By Steve Herring
Published in News on March 26, 2017 12:00 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Jessica Hogan laughs as children react to different smells during the monthly 4-H for Life meeting at Freedom Baptist Church Tuesday. Hogan is the county's new 4-H agent and a native of Wayne County.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Growing up in the Grantham community, Jessica Hogan's involvement in the 4-H horse program had her wanting to be a professional horse rider when she grew up.
That didn't happen. But, as she grew older, Ms. Hogan decided she wanted to take on more leadership roles and became involved in the 4-H junior leader program.
Now at age 25, she is ready to share her love of, and her experiences in 4-H, with local youths as Wayne County Extension Service's new 4-H agent.
A native of the Grantham community, she is a 2010 graduate of Southern Wayne High School at Dudley and received her bachelor's of science degree in agricultural education in December 2013 from the University of Mount Olive.
Prior to returning to her home county, Ms. Hogan worked as Pender County 4-H agent starting in April 2014.
Her first day as Wayne County 4-H agent was March 1.
Ms. Hogan said she thinks her background in 4-H will help her in the job because she has real-life experience to draw upon.
"Whenever I had 4-H'ers in Pender it was, 'Oh, Miss Jessica that is so hard,'" she said. "I would say, 'I have been there. I have done that. You will get through it, and it will be the best thing that you have ever done.' So I think that being able to relate to the kids and encourage them and say, 'I have done this before. You can do it.''
While in college, Miss Hogan interned with the 4-H program.
"I was able to learn a lot about 4-H in Wayne County," she said. "I was able to help with the summer programming. When I was in high school I was very involved in the Wayne County 4-H program. So I am a Wayne county 4-H alum.
"But I didn't know what I wanted to do. I just kept drawing a blank on what career field I wanted to go into."
Someone suggested 4-H. Her response was that she volunteered "all of the time" with the program.
"They were like, no Jessica let's look further into it," she said. "That's kind of how I got on the 4-Ha agent path. When I went to Mount Olive my focus was on agricultural education, and I was involved in a lot of other agricultural pockets I guess -- did FFA and that kind of thing. But I knew 4-H was where my heart strings were pulled more toward.
"I like 4-H because it gives kids an outlet. It's not something that you have to be the smartest, or the fastest, or the greatest. I think that is what I like about 4-H because I wasn't great at sports, and I wasn't super, super genius in school. But I was able to find my light in 4-H and really be able to make it shine."
Children don't have to grow up on a farm to join 4-H, she said. The program is open to ages 5 to 18. Ages 5 to 8 is non-competitive.
Wayne County's 4-H program has a large club base, she said. The cubs include robotics, homeschooled groups and a junior sports club.
"We are very diverse, I think," she said. "We have livestock kids who are doing great things on the national levels. I think through our 4-H program we can definitely offer a variety of programs to youth in Wayne County, and we are trying to expand our club base. So we will need lots of volunteers.
"We are trying to expand our club base so that we can reach more kids, not only on a homeschooled level but the traditional 4-H kids in the schools. They need 4-H."
Establishing more clubs is one of her top goals.
Another is to bring back what 4-H is really all about, she said.
"That is community and service -- providing to our youth the skills that they need to be active citizens and trying to bring it back to the forefront," she said. "Not that it is lost. It is just a little foggy sometimes."
It is important to involve children in such programs, she said.
The 4-H program is going to try a new approach to recruiting children by launching "spin clubs" that appeal to special interests.
The idea is to find a niche that children want to learn about and possibly do an eight-week program. That could possibly be followed by another eight-week program in an attempt to entice the children by having other clubs come in and show what they teach, she said.
For example, program assistant Barbara Byers is working with the Lego League.
Children in the program build different figures. Currently, the children are learning abut bees and will build Lego models to go along with weekly lessons.
Other possibilities include a Junior Master Gardener program and a cooking club.
"Maybe we can pull those new kids into our traditional club base," she said. "With any child comes a parent. So maybe we will find a willing parent who will lead a club. It is something that I would like to try to implement. I think it definitely would take some background work."
The county already has the annual livestock show and sale, she said.
"Hopefully we will be able to do more of a traditional livestock where they get together and met for more than just the shows and sales," she said.
Clubs can be hosted at schools, churches and other locations, she said.
For more information, call the Wayne County 4-H office at 919-751-1527.