Cowley County has a population of 34,549 and is in south central Kansas, approximately one hour from Wichita. Winfield, population 11,777, is the county seat and home of Southwestern College. Arkansas City, population 11,974, is the home of Cowley College. There are 5 school districts in the county and several private/parochial schools. Cowley County’s 4-H program serves 300 members in twelve clubs and one project group. The Friends of Cowley County Extension hosts an annual event to raise the profile of extension and generate non-tax monies to support educational programs.
Extension agents are community based faculty of Kansas State University who make a difference by connecting community needs with university resources. Agents are administratively responsible to the local extension director and the local extension board.
This position will provide primary leadership for the development, implementation, and evaluation of a comprehensive 4-H youth development program for school-aged youth in cooperation with local residents and extension colleagues. The primary focus of this position is youth development, adult volunteer development, youth education program development, expanding partnerships, and participation and membership growth. Programming will include but is not limited to: supporting community clubs, out-of-school programs, school enrichment, volunteer management, and outreach to create new program opportunities with existing and new community partners.
Extension agents are professional educators who serve as a link between Kansas State University and communities across Kansas. Agents are administratively responsible to the Director of K-State Research and Extension (represented by a designated administrator) and the local extension board.
- Lead the development, implementation, and evaluation of a comprehensive 4-H youth development program for school-aged youth in cooperation with local residents and extension colleagues. The primary focus of this position is youth development, adult volunteer development, youth education program development, expanding partnerships, and participation and membership growth. Programming will include but is not limited to: supporting community clubs, out-of-school programs, school enrichment, volunteer management, and outreach to create new program opportunities with existing and new community partners.
- Contribute programming primarily focused on agricultural sciences and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, and Math) education.
- Share responsibility for community vitality programming that helps our communities become better places to live, work, and play. Programming will strengthen the social, civic, economic, and technological capacity of communities through leadership development and civic engagement.
- Programming will include these steps:
- Identify local needs and emerging issues related to K-State Research and Extension’s five Grand Challenges: (water, community vitality, health, developing tomorrow’s leaders and global food systems) by engaging with program development committees and other community organizations and professionals.
- Design appropriate educational strategies to engage clientele. These strategies might include delivering educational programming in a community-based setting, coordinating events and activities that provide experiential learning opportunities, using innovative technologies, providing individual educational consultations and facilitating groups seeking similar educational outcomes. Some overnight travel and evening and weekend work will be required.
- Develop and implement strategies to expand the reach of educational programming to under-served audiences and to make certain K-State Research and Extension is an equal opportunity provider of educational programming.
- Collect and communicate evidence of educational program impact.
- Develop specialized knowledge and skills by engaging as a member of a Program Focus Team.
- Secure external funding such as grants, gifts and cost recovery to supplement local tax revenue to support and expand educational programming.
- May periodically be assigned to serve as the local unit director providing administrative oversight for the fiscal operations, coordination of personnel, development, delivery and reporting of program impact and other administrative functions assigned by the director’s representative and the extension board.
- Serve as a member of the Cowley County Extension team cooperating in the planning and delivery of county-wide programming and related events.
