EP 80: Renewable Fuel Standard, Refineries, & Underrated Skills
May 3, 2023
EP 81: Grass-fed or Grain-fed, Beef Prices, & The Worst Day at Work
May 9, 2023
At Premier Companies, we believe in being committed, dependable and honest in every aspect of our business. This includes the ways we interact and give back to our local communities in practical and thoughtful ways. One opportunity Premier has identified in the past few years is the chance to provide funds to various 4-H communities across the state of Indiana to further the next generation’s involvement and excitement in the agriculture industry. In this two part series, we will introduce just a few of the 2022 & 2023 Grant Recipients. For a full list, please visit the Indiana 4-H Foundation’s website.
Johnson County
Educator: Heather Dougherty
Funding Received: $3,300
Sphero bolts
“Sphero BOLT Power Pak & Sphero Code Mat seamlessly pairs learning with play,” shared Johnson County educator Heather Dougherty. As we all know, technology is pivotal in every industry, but especially in the world of agriculture. The more we can educate those in our community and industry on the advancements available to them, the more progress we will see in our fields, livestock, and ultimately livelihood.
“This Education bundle compiles the best of Sphero’s STEM solutions for schools and packages them for the classroom,” continued Heather. She shared that these systems would “be used in Johnson County for our educational school enrichment programs with area schools. We have six school corporations in the county and we typically do school enrichment programs with over 4,000 youth in our community throughout the year. This educational tool will help to continue our mission of teaching youth about STEM and coding.”
When the Premier team read about Heather’s vision for increasing students’ opportunities to interact with coding in a fun and engaging way at a young age, we knew it spoke straight to our value of being Progressive.
In January of 2023, we were able to see the impact of this program first hand in Johnson County:
“We had another great day with 7th and 8th grade students at Greenwood Christian Academy! Today’s stations consisted of Keva planks, snap together circuits, hexbugs and Sphero Bolts!
Thank you Premier Companies Ag & Energy Services for the grant to support purchasing the Sphero Bolts and the Indiana 4-H Foundation for the snap together circuit kits!”
Washington County
Educator: Megan Broughton
Funding Received: $4,000
Fitting and grooming workshop, soybean science kit supplies
“This workshop has been requested by our 4-H members and volunteers. The plan is to have guest speakers come to Washington County in May to put on a workshop that will teach our members and volunteers how to properly fit and groom their animals for the show,” said educator Megan Broughton from Washington County.
When we read Megan’s application for Washington County 4-H, we were interested in the many ideas she had for hands-on learning and training for the youth in her county. As we see in our industry, learning and training on the job is regularly the very best way to improve your craft. This is one of the reasons we chose to grant Washington County’s request. With the funds, they were able to successfully host a Livestock Carcass Workshop and a Mini showmanship workshop.
Megan shared at the Livestock Carcass Workshop, they had approximately 50 youth and 20 volunteers attend. During the workshop, “youth members learned about the importance of their livestock projects going into the food chain.”
At the Mini showmanship workshop, 4-H youth learned about caring for and showing their animals. It gave youth a chance to interact with livestock even if they don’t typically have access to these animals on a daily basis.
With the remaining funds, Washington County was able to purchase livestock learning lab kits from The Ohio State University. To date, some of the kits were utilized at the carcass workshop and others have been dispersed between various 4-H clubs.
Don’t Miss This Year’s Application!
If your organization is interested in applying for the 2023/2024 round, please submit the form below to be notified of when the application window will be open.
