Ontario County 4-H Public Presentations

Many people say public speaking is one of their top fears. However, the 4-H program is using Public Presentation to develop the next generation of confident communicators and build self-esteem in youth across Ontario County. The first week in February, Ontario County 4-H held public speaking events with a total of 61 youth participating and 12 volunteer evaluators providing encouragement and feedback.

4-H Public Presentations allows youth ages 5-19 the chance to present on any topic that is of interest to them. Speeches range from 1 minute for young, inexperienced presenters, to 15 minutes for more advanced presenters. While most youth participate in the illustrated speech category (a basic speech with a poster or presentation slides), there is the opportunity to participate in demonstration, motivational, impromptu, and recitation speech categories. The flexibility of the program allows youth to present on something that they are passionate about and gives them additional options to pursue as they become more and more experienced. Once youth had given their speech, they conference one-on-one with an evaluator who then provided encouragement and feedback about the presentation. After conferencing, youth received a certificate and a coupon for one free ice cream cone, donated by Canandaigua McDonalds.

This year, presentations were scheduled in one-hour blocks to improve the ability to social distance. At each event, there were about five youth participants and three volunteer judges per room per hour. This gives the chance for youth to listen to other presenters and learn about a variety of topics. At the conclusion of each speech, one of the judges will conference with the youth one-on-one to provide encouragement and feedback about how to improve for next year.

These events are also a great opportunity for older 4-H teens to develop leadership skills. On Tuesday night February 1^st,  Wyatt Wadams and Olivia Maslyn served as teen evaluators, evaluating presentations alongside the adult volunteers. Declan McLaughlin and Grace Maslyn served as a room hosts during their presentation times, which consisted of announcing the each youth speaker. When a snow storm forced the cancellation of the Friday, February 4^th presentations, many participants’ presentation times got moved to Saturday morning. Four teens enthusiastically stepped in last minute to help the 4-H educator with increased participation and the need to run multiple rooms at the same time. Hannah Czadzeck handled registration and answered questions of participants, while Shelby Miller, Langdon Miller, and Simon Czadzeck were each in charge of being room supervisors in the three rooms where presentations were being held. As room supervisors, their responsibilities were to introduce the judges, let participants know when it was their turn to present, and handle any issues that arose in their assigned room. Without these four teen leaders, the Saturday Public Presentations event would not have run smoothly.

The following youth participating in this years’ Ontario County 4-H Public Presentation events: Declan McLaughlin, Zoey Richwalder, Emily Hay, James Hay, Kellan McLaughlin, Hazel McLaughlin, Marlowe Mauer, Amelia Santy, Lucas Santy, Peter Santy, Miles Merkley, Blake Gauss, Julia Gauss, Nadia Gauss, Fernando Soberon, Elana Soberon, Sara Soberon, Lucia Soberon, Joseph Parshall, Annika Parshall, Beatrix Parshall, Liam Parshall, Elder Dimpfl, Elijah Seeber, Vivian Mehlenbacher, Klara Mehlenbacher, Kaelynn Hanggi, Owen Atwell, Madelyn Reed, Isaac Wheeler, Mallory VanCaeseele, Laramie Pyra, Grant Pyra, Addyson Snyder, Emmett Smithling, Samantha Smithling, Andrea Silkiewicz, Lexah Ciardi, Lacey Ciardi, Kindred Sky Smith, Charlie Rodas, Wyatt Wadams, Olivia Maslyn, Grace Maslyn, Megan Castano, and Owen Grefrath.

Because the last snow storm forced us to cancel one of the sessions, the following youth will be giving their presentations at a makeup session in March: Manny Mand, Travis Clark, Hannon Bienvenue, Gavin Bienvenue, and Abby Robbins.

We would like to congratulate all of the 4-H members on such a great performance and are looking forward to seeing how they use their communications skills in other aspects of their lives.

Ontario County 4-H is offering several in-person social distanced and hybrid learning opportunities for youth ages 5-18. Our 2021-2022 4-H year began on October 1^st. If you are interested in enrolling as a member or volunteer or if you have questions about our program, please reach out to Sarah Wilhelm at sab423@cornell.edu or call 585-394-3977. 

Cornell Cooperative Extension is a non-profit educational organization with a mission to extend new knowledge and research-based information in agriculture, family and consumers sciences from Cornell University to county residents.  County residents with concerns or questions related to agriculture, horticulture, water quality, 4-H youth development, parenting or family financial management can call 585-394-3977 any time or visit our website at www.cceontario.org.

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