Volume 18, Number 1, Fall 2007

Building Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs
4-H Takes Aim at Michigan’s Economic Woes

Michelle Lavra

When kids join MSU Extension’s 4-H Youth Development program, they make a pledge that includes using their heads to think more clearly and their hands for better service. Ashley Raetz, an 18-year-old dynamo from Midland, must have taken that message to heart, because several years after starting her 4-H career showing peewee pigs and making crafts, Raetz leads two high-profile Midland County 4-H programs that benefit from her clear-headed thinking and her service-oriented hands.

Both programs share an entrepreneurial focus that may be a surprise to people who are unfamiliar with 4-H’s growing commitment to and programming emphasis on youth career development and entrepreneurial learning experiences. But with 85 percent of Michigan residents saying that preparing today’s youth for tomorrow’s jobs is a high priority for Michigan*—understandable, given that the state has lost 336,000 jobs in the past six years, according to the Detroit News—it’s really not surprising that the state’s largest youth development program should respond to Michigan’s need for entrepreneurial training for young people.

In Raetz’s case, she has taken over running her county’s successful 4-H teen job fair, an event that even the most ambitious matchmaker would envy—1,100 teens seeking jobs with 70 businesses over the past three years. In 2006, 60 to 75 youth found employment through their participation in the job fair, and many participating employers report they are keeping on youth they hired last year.

“This year, employers such as a local bike shop, a bagel place and the local hospital were there, right alongside places like Dow Chemical, Target and Kohl’s,” Raetz said, also mentioning recruiters from the National Guard and the Marines. “I know that Gordon Food Service scheduled five interviews and that Big Apple Bagel filled at least two positions for the summer.”

When Raetz isn’t on the phone recruiting businesses for the teen job fair or marketing the event to area teens, she and her younger sister Amy and other members of the 4-H REAACT (Reaching Environmental Awareness and Action in Communities Together) program can be found at the Arnold Center, a non-profit rehabilitation and workforce development center serving youth and adults who face barriers to employment and social activities. REAACT projects with the Arnold Center have included holding a successful recycling drive whereby the group collected more than 4,700 pounds of electronic components and improving bird habitat along Midland County’s rail trail by constructing, placing and monitoring 10 wood duck nest boxes and 20 bluebird nest boxes.

Raetz presented the idea of the bird habitat improvement project to her 4-H club and helped write the grant to fund it when she was just 16 years old. Building on the project’s success, the group decided this year to expand the program to include a money-making venture to keep the project funded for the future.

“This year, we built 30 wood duck boxes and have delivered about half to local businesses for them to sell,” Raetz explained. “The businesses are selling the boxes for around $40 each. We get back $5 to $10 per box, enough to buy materials for the project again for next year. We’re not trying to make a huge profit—we just need enough to keep the project going.”
Even if the wood duck nest box project doesn’t make a profit, the payoff for Raetz has been huge. She says her work in REAACT and with the teen job fair has taught her about marketing, honed her communication skills, improved her project- and time-management skills, and encouraged her to become a leader, to say nothing of everything she learned from writing the initial bird habitat improvement grant.

“I have a passion for helping other people, especially kids. That’s why I want to become a doctor,” said Raetz, who’ll be heading to the Lyman Briggs School of Science at Michigan State University this fall. “Working with kids at the Arnold Center who have mental or physical challenges has been really great for me. I know the work I’ve done through 4-H, both in REAACT and in the teen job fair, has influenced my job choice 100 percent.”

*MSU Extension and Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station. 2006. “Assessment of Michigan’s Needs and Priorities: A Citizen Survey.” East Lansing, Mich.: Michigan State University.