Reagan Conrad's Report
View Reagan Conrad's 2024 OSU Extension Internship Report below.
Before this internship, when I heard the word “extension,” I thought it meant educating the public. While this may be true, it doesn’t fully encompass all the complexities of extension. It offers many ways to connect with the community, from planning workshops for 4H youth to implementing programs within local prisons. This is why I think I struggled so much with selecting my topic for my special project. I am the type of person who would learn everything about everything if given the opportunity. My love for learning new things is what drives me, and I wanted to provide a unique opportunity for Tulsa County 4H students. I am an agricultural communications major with a minor in animal science, so I initially thought about doing something related to agriculture. However, Tulsa County is urbanized, and agriculture is not very prominent within the community. This was when I decided to tie in my second minor in American Sign Language to present a unique workshop opportunity.
The driving factor behind my project topic was my passion for for creating more opportunities
in the agricultural industry for deaf individuals. Most of my sign language professors
live in Tulsa County, so I’ve heard about the city’s deaf culture. Tulsa has a large
deaf community that many are unaware of due to a lack of connection between hearing
and deaf individuals. I want to help bridge this gap, and teaching others in my community
is a great way to start. I took the information I learned in my sign language classes
and turned it into my special project. I changed my mind countless times while deciding
how I wanted my workshop to go. I wasn’t sure what information I wanted to teach,
and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to keep the attendees’ full attention. I didn’t
want to limit my workshop to a particular age group, so finding activities engaging
for all ages was very challenging. I talked with the educators in my office and some
nearby offices to learn their tips and tricks for hosting a successful workshop; they
all recommended I incorporate hands-on activities.
After a few weeks of research and indecisiveness, I finally decided on the layout
and materials I would teach. For my project, I hosted a three-hour workshop called
“Talk to the Hands” where attendees learned basic hand shapes, the importance of American
Sign Language, and participated in hands-on activities centered around sign language
and deaf culture. I started the workshop with a slide show discussing the different
hearing loss levels and why sign language is important. I utilized online resources
to gather statistics about hearing loss on a global scale as well as on a national
scale. I even found a website that simulates different levels of hearing loss in various
settings. The simulator would play a sound, such as a conversation or music, and students
could select different intensities and actually hear for themselves what it would
sound like if they experienced certain levels of hearing loss. I talked with the kids
about the cost of hearing aids and cochlear implants to further my point that knowing
sign language is valuable, as some people can’t afford hearing devices. In my slide
show, the kids learned the alphabet, how to count to 10, colors, common animals, spell
their names, and signs for family members. I then brought in the hands-on activities
where the kids made “name signs,” which used the ASL alphabet to spell their names.
They also played a game where kids would partner up, and one person would wear noise-canceling
headphones while the other whispered a sentence. The person wearing noise-canceling
headphones would then have to guess what the person was saying. I incorporated this
game to show that reading lips isn’t as easy as we think, and we must find other ways
to communicate with deaf people.
While I’m proud of my project, I would definitely do a few things differently. The first thing I would change would be how many people I planned for. Initially, I wanted a big group to come so that I would feel like I was making a larger impact. While I planned for 25 people to attend, I had 10 sign up, and only 4 showed up. At first, I was a little discouraged by the lack of numbers, but I quickly realized this was a blessing in disguise. The smaller group allowed me to make one-on-one connections with the kids and take my time teaching. Not only did I spend more time helping the kids, but I also experienced less nervousness, which helped make the workshop successful. The other thing I would change would be how often I hosted the workshop. I could have hosted it more than once or even taught it during club meetings. I want to reach more people, and hosting the workshop more frequently with smaller groups would have been a perfect solution.
My project was a great success, and I’m very proud of it. The engagement was terrific, and the kids had a great time. My favorite part of this project was hearing how much fun the kids had and how the workshop impacted them. One of the older girls told me she couldn’t wait to bring her friends next time and wrote a note on her post-evaluation form that said, “10 out of 10. I love this!” She said attending the workshop made her want to keep practicing and eventually take ASL classes. At our Tulsa County Free Fair, one of the younger girls who participated in the workshop explained that she wanted to learn sign language because a resident at her grandmother’s nursing home was deaf, and she wanted to communicate with her. She said she used the signs I taught her and told the resident more about herself. Her mother showed me the video she took of them communicating back and forth, and I couldn’t help but get teary-eyed as I experienced the moment that made all the late nights and stress worth it.
Overall, this project was a fantastic opportunity, and I’m grateful to all of the educators and support staff at Tulsa County for supporting me throughout the summer. My goal is to pursue a career in extension, and this special project gave me a glimpse into what I hope to one day be my future. I learned the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes and how to roll with the punches if something doesn’t go exactly as I planned. I thoroughly enjoyed this project and would love to come back and teach again.
Figure 1. Taken at my workshop where I was explaining the what it means to be deaf or hard of hearing and how that is measured.
Figure 2. Taken at the Tulsa Boys Home while I was trying to get the perfect picture. As you can see, I’m all about getting the right angles!
Figure 3. Look mom! I’m on TV! This was taken when filming a segment of cooking corner. My favorite part was when the news anchor, Reagan Ledbetter, said “Two Reagans, one cooking corner, it’s gonna be great.” It was pretty great and tasty too.
Figure 4. Photo taken at the Tulsa Boys Home during an entomology workshop. As an agricultural communications major, I love taking photos!
Figure 5. Photo taken at the Tulsa Boys Home during an entomology workshop.