Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this February 8th, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Maylov here, and welcoming in the studio,
our great friend, Laura Huber, for each program educator with UW Extension.
I always good to see you, Laura. Thanks for being here.
It's great to see you again, James. Thanks so much for having me.
Can I introduce another very special guest?
Yes, please do. You brought us a friend, yeah.
Yeah, so we've talked several times about Wood County 4-H,
partnering with AmeriCorps to kind of help expand our reach
in the community. And so today, I'm so excited to have Melina Karatini with us.
She is our AmeriCorps member who started in September,
but time allowed for her to join us today.
Really appreciate the time, Melina. Thanks so much for being with us.
I want to talk with you a little bit about AmeriCorps,
but I think I'm not the only one. We have got very smart listeners out there.
They caught that last name. That last name seems a little familiar for us here.
They talked to on Midday Magazine with a lot of our extension off of family and everything.
Do you happen to know Jackie? Do you happen to have any connection to Jackie at all, too?
Yeah, so Jackie Karatini is my mother, which I guess is a funny connection, but yeah.
So like with your mom, I just turn her mic on and get out of her way.
So is that what I'm doing with you? Here's it.
No, I'm kidding. I won't put you on the spot like that,
but I really do appreciate the time, really appreciate your being here,
and love your mom. She's amazing. She's an awesome human being.
When it comes to AmeriCorps, let's start right there.
What is AmeriCorps? AmeriCorps.
Yeah, so AmeriCorps is an outreach program based on service,
and it's where people go into the communities and around different things,
whatever, and try to help and find different ways that we can serve in the community,
and just like get outreach and find ways that we can make it better in a sense.
And so my position is actually working on expanding, not only just 4-H,
but just different programs in the community like Boys and Girls Club,
things with the library, and just like building numbers, and just expanding, and yeah.
Yeah, how did you get involved with this?
Yeah, so growing up with my mom and extension,
whatever, I always saw the summer AmeriCorps members,
and I was like, always thought it was so cool,
because like I always got to experience them,
and just like hang out with them as a kid, and 4-H,
and whatever in the extension office.
And so when I, this summer, I was like, oh, like,
I think this would be a pretty cool thing,
whatever, do they still have it?
And so I did the summer one in Marathon County,
and then at the end of the summer, my mom was talking to Laura,
and Laura said, hey, you should definitely apply for the year-long one
since I'm at UWSP, so it's not too far to wrap it,
so I ended up buying and getting it,
and so I'm very excited to continue my service, so yeah.
Very cool.
Congrats about the UWSP, and congrats about that,
and my daughter went there, loved it.
Congratulations to you about it, and that's very cool to hear
that it pulled you to it, that it had a call to you.
You enjoyed it, you got your feet wet with it,
and you wanted to continue to do it.
I think that's an interesting note.
When it comes to how you got involved,
how about what you like about being involved in AmeriCorps?
Yeah, so I have always been someone who loves to help,
loves to lead, like, to get into the community and stuff,
and so this is based off service,
and helping stuff, whatever, so I really enjoyed that,
and just going into different things,
like the schools, and helping with 4-H,
and getting to know the community,
and know the four-H's in the youth,
I think is really cool,
and just like now that I can make a difference,
and just be very helpful, so I love that.
Melina, I'm curious about something else,
and I don't ever like to do this to people
to put them on the spot,
or to ask them to speak for a large group of other people.
But I've talked about this a lot in the air,
I've actually talked about it with your mom,
and I think even Laura bit.
Our generations were pretty active,
and did quite a bit of the young age,
but we're also young.
Where it comes, when I see your generation,
I see so many people in your generation taking action,
like being active, being involved in things.
Are you seeing the same thing?
You would know better than I would.
Are you seeing very similar,
not saying everybody,
and I don't mean to make you speak
for your generation or anything,
but I do seem to see a lot more of that with your generation.
Are you noticing that too?
Yeah, I feel like our generation has noticed a lot
growing up, and just like, I think, obviously,
there's multiple different things
that have going on in the world,
and I think that we have noticed,
as a whole, that we have to kind of step forward
and try to help as much as we can,
even at a younger age,
and kind of just start to do our part.
And so I think, yeah, that there's a lot,
in our generation that are trying to make a change,
and just be helpful to the generations
that are so on and whatever, and to the future.
I really admire that.
I really think it goes a long way.
A piggybacking off of that, Melina,
how would you encourage people
to be involved with AmeriCorps?
Yeah, so we actually have some more positions coming up
in the next couple months and then a year or whatever,
and they're not only just in, like, 4-H,
but there are a ton of different opportunities
in the community and stuff that have different AmeriCorps members,
and I think you just have to go on to the AmeriCorps website
and just like research and whatever,
and there's different ones,
like different types of service and stuff,
so each person can find what works for them.
So yeah.
Well, you're almost as good as your mom.
You just set me in Laura perfectly,
because that's where I want to go with things.
Laura, nice job, Melina, nice job.
When it comes to the variety of things,
ways people can work with AmeriCorps,
there's a lot of different things for different people,
not everybody might be able to feel comfortable doing this,
but maybe there's an opportunity here with something else.
Yes, AmeriCorps is kind of like the Peace Corps,
but here at home.
And so it does have its like start up there
in kind of government levels,
but where it really makes the differences in partnerships.
So Melina is here with us because of a partnership
between AmeriCorps and Wisconsin 4-H.
Another example of a local is Marshfield Clinic partners
with AmeriCorps, so you could serve with either one,
if you're serving with Wisconsin 4-H or Wood County,
you know, that youth education component
that outreach into communities,
that's what the focus is on.
If you're partnering with, say, Marshfield Clinic,
I know a lot of their interest is in mental health
and well-being, not only for young people,
but for all sorts of different communities.
So like Melina said, going on in searching for AmeriCorps
and taking a look at what opportunities are out there
is really a great way to find a match
for your own skills, your own personal interests.
And I just want to say it is a volunteer role,
but everybody who serves with AmeriCorps
does get a living stipend,
and the really cool piece on the backside
is educational awards.
So when Melina finishes her, well,
actually you've already done it once, right?
She served in a quarter time summer position with Marathon.
She got an education award that she can use directly already
for UWSP, but it doesn't mean that this is only
for young people.
Parents and grandparents can serve in AmeriCorps
and they can pass their education awards
to their children or grandchildren.
So there are benefits to service beyond that feeling great
about making a difference in the community.
There are some pretty tangible benefits to it too,
and not to, you know, I don't know,
put too fine a spin on it, but the job skills
that you attain through this is really something
to consider.
I mean, it's real.
I think that, again,
not to keep doing this to you, I'm Melina,
but with your mom and your DNA,
you're gonna be pretty good at talking,
or in everything,
but I don't think it's noteworthy.
You've never joined us on the air,
you've never done anything really like this,
and you sound like a pro.
You came on, your skill set is very,
you can tell you've got a really good skill set
for something like this.
I imagine that's something that's been helped
by the AmeriCorps.
So just as an example of that,
there's so many different things.
I think that's a great point to bring up, Laura,
because when it comes to how do I learn
certain skill sets in life?
There's only so much that you can learn from a book.
There's only so much you can learn in education.
So many things in life, you've got to learn in real time.
You can only learn by actually doing them.
This great organization gives people
these kids an opportunity for that.
And it's a really great note too.
That surprised me when I looked into it.
I hadn't done a deep dive before into the organization,
when I did one of the first things I noticed was,
oh, I thought it was just for kids.
This is for everybody.
Everybody can be a part of this.
Absolutely.
The one note, right?
You're not going to make a living
that is going to sustain a family of five
serving with AmeriCorps, right?
So that's a consideration.
And so a lot of the people that we find
are serving with AmeriCorps,
are those who are on the younger side,
or maybe they've already retired,
but they're not done, right?
This is their time to really give back
and make a difference right here at home
in local communities.
How has AmeriCorps benefited the 4-H?
Oh my gosh.
We don't have much time, do we?
We don't.
Yeah, we don't.
So having Malina here just makes things
possible that I can't do on my own, right?
I, I, one person, Jasmine is with us half time, right?
There is so much need, but so few people.
And, and so what AmeriCorps does is it allows us
to bring people on board in very reasonable ways,
like very affordable for us.
And so Malina can focus on programs
that I seriously just don't have the time
or the capacity to do,
but I've wanted to do for a really long time.
So a lot of Malina's focus is on programs
to young people who aren't already in 4-H, right?
So partnering with the library.
She talked about partnering with Boys and Girls Club.
Right now, we're in the midst of putting out
decopage project kits that Malina kind of created,
like directions and the materials
and all of those kinds of good things.
And so one of the other things she's working on
is more of those sorts of things,
free available to the community,
whoever's in the community, right?
Because we really want to do good things
for youth and families right here.
So by the way, if you're interested in learning more
about those programs that are coming up,
check out the Wood County 4-H Facebook page.
That's the best place to find the new advertisements
when those kits are ready.
We're speaking with Laura Huber,
4-H in program educator with UW Extension
and we have Malina Karen Teeney with us as well
from AmeriCorps.
Thank you both again for the time.
Laura, we were gonna originally kind of talk
a little bit about ChickQuest.
Yeah.
And these two things tie together.
Absolutely.
So I already mentioned, right?
I don't have the capacity to do
all of the outreach programs that I want to do.
ChickQuest is really cool
because it's happening in classrooms.
And so what ChickQuest is is I bring in an incubator
and fertilize chicken eggs.
And so over the course of a month,
I get to work with young people in the classroom,
hands-on, learning about agriculture,
learning about science, learning about data collection,
learning about all of those things,
while they're able to check and keep track
and monitor the eggs in the incubator.
Right now, I've got a program going
in River City's high school.
The really cool thing about this program
is right now I have a grant to fund it.
So it's free to the schools and it's exciting.
Oh, that is awesome.
Exciting, right?
You heard that.
I have one of the limits.
Sit there and just really,
because that's a good joke, Laura.
That's a good joke.
It's got to let it sit there and marinate a little bit.
That's a good one, I love it.
I'm a father so I can laugh at things like that.
It's a good note and it's also really interesting for the kids.
I don't know how much that stuff exists anymore.
That you have that in classrooms as much anymore.
Like when we were kids and you saw a little bit more of that,
it's kind of cool to have that back.
And it feels very real because it is very real.
You know, when I was working with kids at River City's
earlier in the week, you know, they got to take a deep dive.
It's not just doing these,
the reading from the textbook.
It's not just whatever.
It's like, here everything is right in front of my hands.
We talked about why it was so important
to maintain the environment of the incubator,
what they're trying to mimic there,
what happens if things get too cold, if they get too dry.
And then we started literally picking apart the eggs
and the kids were fascinated.
Learning about the parts of the eggs,
because we know all of this
on the structure of like, I take an egg, I crack it,
I fry it, I scramble it, I do whatever, right?
But they got a chance to learn about the different parts
and what their functions were.
I was kind of amazed at how into that,
these high schoolers were, it was really cool.
But then talking about the difference of the egg
that was produced to be sold on the shelf
at the grocery store compared to what the eggs were
that we were putting in the incubator and all of that.
The really cool piece is we can adjust it.
The original curriculum is set for elementary school.
But like I said, I'm in the high school
because that's one of the things I do.
I work with everybody from kindergarten to 13th grade.
So I would just put a plug out there
that if there are teachers here listening
that would be interested in having me come into your classroom,
I do need a month and I do need you to do some maintenance
to kind of take care of the eggs
throughout the time when I am not there.
But it's free of charge.
It's a really cool hands-on learning opportunity
for your students.
I promise they'll be engaged.
They will feel like scientists.
The program does meet state science standards
at many levels, at many grades.
So.
It's a fun program.
I personally, I can't tell you how excited,
how ecstatic I am about it.
Thank you.
I got it.
It was a reach, it was a reach,
and I had to do it.
It is a really cool program though.
And one of the things, just hearing you talk
about it a little bit more,
immediately just off the top of my head,
thinking of some of the lessons
and the things that can be taught.
And like a lot of stuff that it goes on in school
and some of our great teachers do,
there are layers to this.
It's everything you mentioned there is noteworthy.
I also see opportunity for empathy being created here
for some more understanding of our ag industry,
of our farmers, of what it takes.
That's one egg they're watching.
Imagine a whole entire farm of something like that going on
and some of those things.
And as we're trying more and more to give people
and let people know, hey, this is a great industry.
The ag industry, being a farmer,
that's a great career.
That's a great industry.
We need more life in that.
We need more young blood in that.
This kind of stuff.
It just, as you and I have touched on so many times, Laura,
we never know where that spark is going to come from.
What's going to spark a young mind and be like,
whoa, that's my new passion.
That's what I want to do the next 20, 30 years of my life.
We just don't know these kind of things,
give them an opportunity to at least,
even if they don't fall in love with eggs
or fall in love with being a farmer or something,
who knows, maybe it spins it off into something else.
Maybe they want to be a vet.
Maybe they want to do this.
Don't know unless we give them the opportunities.
Absolutely.
And we're always tying into that piece
like this is where food comes from.
It doesn't just come from the grocery store shelf.
There's so much that goes into it.
And learning about the life cycle of a chicken
as silly as it might seem.
It absolutely does feed into that understanding
of there is a lot that goes on to get that food
onto my plate at the end of the day.
So if I could just say, if you are interested
or you know a teacher out there that would be interested
in having a program like this in the classroom,
reach out to me at the extension office
because I would love to talk.
I would love to get things on the schedule.
I need a full month.
It takes 21 days for the eggs to hatch,
but you know, to get things set up
so the students understand what's going on
before we bring the eggs into the classroom.
That would be fantastic.
So the easiest way to reach me is probably by phone.
715-421-8439 is my number at the extension office
or you can email me.
And my email address is Laura-lura.huber.hu
H-U-B-As-N-Boy-E-R-At-Whisk.
That's W-I-S-C dot E-D-U.
Laura, as we're wrapping up the last couple of minutes
we have here, we just say I wanted to touch
on another couple of things.
Yeah, many times I've been on the radio
and talked about Creative Arts Day.
It's a big event for Wood County 4-H
that happens every spring.
And this year I'm really excited
that we've got a little bit of a change made.
Thanks to the advocacy of Snyder 4-H Club.
Creative Arts Day is going to happen
in Wisconsin Rapids this year.
Woo! Oh, awesome.
Oh, that is good news.
I think so too, especially this is a program
that's open for anybody to just come and watch.
You don't have to participate, you don't have to perform.
But if you want to see young people
who've been working really hard perform in one-act plays,
performing skits, playing their instruments,
giving public speaking demonstrations, things like that,
this is available to you.
We're going to be at the Wisconsin Rapids area middle school,
which has been a great, I mean, it is a cool facility.
Oh, it is, yeah.
A beautiful stage and auditorium.
I love that stage.
It's beautiful.
Since I was a kid, I wanted to perform on that stage.
Yeah, it's a great stage.
So it's going to be April 6th.
So it's coming up, you know, shortly,
our Wood County 4-Hers right now
are working hard to get ready for this.
This is really, it's a big event for them.
Yeah, and for our community.
And then to be able to host it here in Rapids.
I know in years past, I've wanted to attend
and haven't been able to something like this.
Even I can get to it with my crazy schedule.
It's being in town, that's awesome.
And it's nice to have that setting that you're so right
about this, that's a great place to host this event.
And everybody can attend.
Everybody can take this and everybody can support these kids.
Absolutely.
So family-friendly events, you know,
no worries about that.
I can't give you the exact schedule right now
because we are in the middle right now of registering.
And as soon as registration is out,
we will, or is complete.
We'll create the schedule and share that out.
And again, the Wood County 4-H Facebook page
is going to be one of the easiest places to find.
If you'd like to see like, I don't know,
what are the plays that are going to be performing?
Is there one that catches your interest?
Or do you just want to come and sit all day
and watch all the plays?
The whole public would be welcome to do those things.
We'll definitely talk more and more about this
as we get closer to April and get more details.
But thank you so much for bringing that to us.
That's some really good news to hear.
That's pretty cool.
That's very cool.
As we wrap up, we always like to mention volunteering
and how vital and important that is 2-4-H.
It's not only great, but it's in a great,
like that feel-good feeling we were talking about
with AmeriCorps and everything.
That is a feeling you can get all any time
just by volunteering in your community.
And we think the 4-H is one of the greater places
you can volunteer at.
I think you're absolutely right.
Volunteering takes many forms in 4-H as well.
So you can do things like help lead a club
or you could bring a specific skill
and help young people learn how to do that one thing.
It's unlimited.
You could even just volunteer for one single event.
And you know what, James, I just remembered one other thing
I want to help encourage people to do.
We have a program coming up called Youth on the Rise.
This is where I get to share one of my favorite things
to do with everybody else.
So it's going to be a virtual series on bread baking.
One kind of track is going to be on the QuickBreads
and the other track is going to be on yeast breads.
Very cool.
And it's free.
Registration is open now.
Again, check the Facebook page
because young people do not need to be 4-H members
to participate.
So if you want to learn how to make bread, come and join me.
I've always wanted to do that.
I love bread.
I want to learn how to make cookies in my own bread.
It's like two things I really want to do.
I'm going to be there.
I'll show I'll be to there.
That's awesome.
Starting Sunday, February 25th, we'll meet weekly on Sundays.
Laura, one more time if we can get the information of people
if they want to find out more about some of the things
we've talked about today, how can they reach you?
Yeah, so my phone number, if you have specific questions
or want to sign up for a checkquest, would be 715-421-8439.
You can email me at Laura.huberatwisk.edu
or always check out our Facebook page.
Our handle on Facebook is woodcounty4h,wi.
Be sure to check out and like that Facebook page
a great way to keep up on things.
And for AmeriCorps, I see that they're website,
AmeriCorps.gov.
That is the website you can check out
if you'd like to find out more about that,
encourage you to do so, again, AmeriCorps.gov.
Melina, thank you so much for the time.
We really, really do appreciate it.
It's great to meet you.
Keep up the great work.
I look forward to seeing the amazing things
you do going forward.
Thank you for the time.
And we'll get out of here on that.
Thank you both again for the time.
We'll have more Midday Magazine for you right here
at WFHR, 97-5 FM, 13-20 AM, locally grown radio.