2016 National eXtension Conference

CES 4H at the University  of the Virgin Islands are working with researchers in five specific areas: Clean water initiatives, Solar energy, GIS, Climate and weather, Technology specifically radio broadcasting.        The purpose of our session would be to share what we are doing in the VI. The youth here are working to create messages to support agriculture and farming, hydrology and mapping as well as environmental issues. The youth enjoy it and get to learn about health and nutrition and tie all of that back to our environment.          This one hour session would focus on the explanation of what we do and how we do it using examples of how it supports these research areas and how our clubs work together to create positive messages of learning and education in ways that impact not only our community but support our researchers with their grants by offering youth delivered audio that allows the messages to be use/consumer friendly.       The concept is youth use smart devices all the time to do what they love - message! In our program they create messages about the work UVI researchers are doing and share it in simple terms so they can access a wider audience. They also analyze data, contribute to research and work to present it to the researchers and their peers. In doing so, they are actively involved in a variety of projects including STEM RESEARCH designed to work as a feeder program into our education programs once they graduate high school. So far they have been very successful - our youth just presented at 31st Agro economics conference on St Croix to more than 200 researchers. For their efforts they received a standing ovation.           We would love to share our simple process of youth engagement to promote research at our university with conference attendees.