Eudora Summer Acadamy
Hannah Riedy, Douglas County 4-H Summer Engagement Intern
Over the course of the summer, I served as one of Douglas County’s Summer Engagement Interns, teaching both science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and healthy living to local youth. The largest program I organized was STEM programming for Eudora Summer Academy which was a free summer program for the students currently enrolled in the Eudora School District. The way their program was set up, I saw each student once a week for 40 minutes to provide STEM programming. I taught classes one at a time (most of the grade levels had more than one classroom, so I saw them individually), once a week for programming, totaling to 14 lessons a week.
Each class had between 15-30 students. I provided STEM learning activities to over 350 students between kindergarten and 8th grade. Participants learned many new concepts including: the basics of coding, how to build a circuit, the engineering design process, and how to encrypt and decrypt data. This was a huge project for me during the entire month of June and it required me to step out of my comfort zone and take on a teacher role both while teaching and lesson planning. 
This program positively impacted the Eudora community by providing age-appropriate, hands-on learning experiences. The students were able to use creative problem-solving skills that will serve them for the rest of their life. During the four-week program, many students were able to recall what we had done the previous week and a few even said they told their parents about the activities. I had a few students ask me where I got the Snap Circuit kit from because they wanted to ask for it for their birthday. In the third week of the program, I had a 4th grade student approach me and tell me how much fun he was having and that he was glad that K-State was coming to his school.
After the conclusion of this program, I assisted the other interns with their programs and taught a few others of my own. During the fair, I was recognized by multiple kids as “the STEM lady from Summer Academy”. I had one student ask me if I would be coming back next year with more “cool toys” and her mother told me that was her favorite part of Summer Academy. All of these examples show me how much of an impact this program is making. I found it rewarding to get such positive feedback in the program setting and in other settings.
