Lauren Hood leads the York County 4-H program through Clemson Extension. While the community clubs are all led by volunteers, Lauren works with the local schools to deliver school enrichment. School enrichment comes in the form of planting and maintaining gardens, hatching chicks through embryology lessons, creating healthy snacks and meals, and various other STEM and natural resources-related lessons.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lauren completed her master’s degree and wrote the first thesis of the new Clemson University Master of Science in Agriculture program. Her thesis was a mixed methods study gaining the perceptions of 4-H participants and their parents of the virtual programming efforts made by South Carolina 4-H during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The goal of this study was to learn what worked and how to improve if there is ever another situation like the pandemic. This study also provides recommendations to Extension leadership to aid county 4-H (or any program area) Agents in data collection and analysis, communication, and marketing, as these were common themes throughout the study. Lauren and other members of the research team hope this study will be beneficial for Clemson Extension, South Carolina 4-H, and other states’ Extension and 4-H programs as it is being formatted for publication in academic journals.
