For Jana Schwartz, no two days are alike. Schwartz is a 4-H associate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Center and helps coordinate 4-H projects within Scotts Bluff County.

One day, Schwartz may be helping with entries for the Scotts Bluff County Fair and spend all day in the office and another day, she may be out doing projects or at the Wildcat Hills teaching children about trees.

Schwartz said projects she coordinates vary from helping 4-H members with their own projects, helping them join clubs or entering students in the fair to the extension center taking part in teaching classrooms about agriculture and animal science, agricultural literacy and more.

One of the many projects Schwartz takes to classrooms is an embryology life cycle project where the students hatch chicken eggs within a classroom. They also teach about electricity, robotics and wearable technology.

Ive been in extension for 15 years now and I was a part of the 4-H program for about 8 years as a child. I really loved what the 4-H program did for me, Schwartz said. It gave me the opportunity to try new things and find out what I was good at.

Schwartz said she didnt go to college expecting to go into extension. Schwartz grew up in Chase County on a cattle ranch and thought shed go into something related to agriculture or veterinary medicine.

I started as a vet tech and ended up on this path, Schwartz said. I started with an internship in Dawes County and that lead to the job here in Scotts Bluff County.

Every state has an extension program that is tied to a university, here in Nebraska it is the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The extension is an outreach program which takes any discoveries by the university that are applicable to the public.

For example, in Nebraska agriculture is the biggest portion of extension and producers are able to learn about the best practices for producing different agricultural products. However, the program also does a lot outside of agriculture such as youth development, 4-H, healthy living and nutrition.

The 4-H program started over 100 years ago in 1902 and its main purpose was to take research that scientists discovered to help producers have higher yields from corn.

They tried to teach the discoveries to the adults, but as adults, we dont maybe want to change the ways we are doing things, so people from the university started the first 4-H youth club and taught them new ways to produce crops, Schwartz said. The kids actually started to out-yield their parents.

Schwartz also said that the main purpose of 4-H is to teach kids life skills, but she said the life skills they taught 100 years ago are quite different from skills youth need to know now. Although things such as responsibility, trust, communication and leadership are still important to the organization, lessons and project categories have been tweaked to fit the times.

There are still projects that have to do with agriculture as well as cooking, sewing, robotics, photography, lots of science, technology, art and math, Schwartz said. Thats what youth are needing today.

Right now, Schwartz and members of the 4-H portion of the extension center are making sure that they are prepared for the Scotts Bluff County Fair.

Its kind of the 4-H members Super Bowl, so were making sure all of the details are taken care of so people and families have the best experience possible, Schwartz said.

Schwartz said her favorite thing about her job is the people and volunteers that she gets to work with.

The kids are amazing to work with and to see them grow and change and meet their potential is great, Schwartz said. Volunteers mean a lot to me because of how much they give to the program and what they do for the kids in their community.

Projects will be shown and judged from Saturday, July 22 through Sunday, Aug. 8 at the Scotts Bluff County Fairgrounds in Mitchell.

Call 308-632-1480 for more information on or questions about the local 4-H program.

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Jana Schwartz leads local 4-H'ers - Scottsbluff Star Herald