Emily Burkett’s passion is 4-H By ELOISE OGDEN
Regional Editor eogden@minotdailynews.com
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ABOVE LEFT: Emily Burkett, 4-H Youth Development agent with NDSU Extension-Ward County, is shown at the State Fair in Minot on July 28. Submitted Photo
TOP RIGHT: Emily Burkett, right, 4-H Youth Development agent with NDSU Extension-Ward County, is pictured at the state 4-H/FFA Land Judging Contest held Aug. 5.
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Eloise Ogden/MDN
mily Burkett has a passion for 4-H. Burkett grew up in 4-H, having been a part of the organization while growing up in Minnesota. Now she is the 4-H Youth Development agent with NDSU Extension-Ward County. She has been in Ward County since 2017 and before that was an extension agent in training for three counties – Eddy, Foster and Wells. Prior to that, she was an intern in her home county in Swift County, Minn. Burkett was born in Fargo, her mother is originally from the Hope area and her dad is from Minnesota, where Burkett grew up. Burkett was a Cloverbud for one year. Cloverbuds are the youngest participants in the 4-H program. “In Minnesota it’s by grade and not by age so I was a 4-Her from second grade to 13th grade which is one year out of high school,” she said, adding, “I enjoyed my time.” As the 4-H Youth Development agent with NDSU Extension-Ward County, Burkett said, “A lot of my work is geared toward youth development. I know when a lot of people see me they think of the fairs and achievement days but there’s more than that. There’s a ton of things.” “Back before COVID we were rockin’ and rollin’ with this program called National Youth Science Day. Now they changed it to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). It’s a program created by 4-H but I would go to the schools and share it and teach it in the classrooms. The most popular and best one that I thought they’ve come out with is called ‘Code Your Dance.’ It’s teaching kids how coding works. It also puts a fun spin in it. You break down the instructions for the ‘Chicken Dance’ so you are teaching them this is like a code when you program computers and the computer can only do what you write. We have them write out instructions
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and they have to act out the instructions exactly as they wrote them. This is what the computer is going to read so we have to be as detailed as we can. “I’ve seen it where like the eighth or ninth-graders who think they’re too cool to do this, love it. And I’ve seen it where the little kids are like, yeah. I love that lesson. I taught it to close to 600 students one fall. It was super successful,” Burkett said. She’s taught the program at a number of Minot and area schools in Ward County. She said they hope to start up the program again. “We’ll get our new lessons sometime in September and then I’ll send it out to the schools to see who is interested.” “It’s fun to take it out in the county and see everybody and as I do it, of course, I promote 4-H because I’m passionate about that too,” she said. Burkett said she has also done day camps in the past but none are scheduled this year. She has helped with the 4-H Camp at Washburn in years past. For a time Burkett was one of the youngest people in Extension so she and a colleague, Rachelle Vettern, taught generations in the workplace. “I loved that,” she said. She said it may not be youth specific but it is applicable for everyone. Vettern is with the Center for 4-H Youth Development at NDSU. “We just created a new curriculum about Generation Z – those are the early college students/high school age kids. It’s fun to share what we learn from the research,” she said. “We do promote kids to be in a (4-H) club because I feel that’s the best way. I can’t be everywhere at the same time and the leaders are there to teach and guide the kids in their club,” Burkett said. Ward County has about 15 4-H clubs across the county, Burkett said. “When I first started we didn’t have a club in Kenmare,” she said. Now there is a club there. 4-H members take part in many programs available to them. Burkett said the 4-H members’ parents are very supportive of them for the programs their sons or daughters take part in.
