4-H Program Facilitator Fits Master's Degree Into Work With Youth

Lane Fritch spends her days teaching, guiding and supporting youth at the Arkansas 4-H Center. While helping young Arkansans discover new interests, she was pursuing her own growth with a master's degree delivered online from the U of A.

At the center west of Little Rock, sometimes Fritch is in the woods or on the lake with the campers; other times they are in the center's spacious indoor facility. Activities include rock climbing, paddle boarding, music and vocal performances, photography, cooking, gardening, archery, crafts and the SeaPerch underwater robotics program, among many others.

"There's nothing more heartwarming than when the kids come in for camp and they call out 'Miss Lane!' and want to tell me how things are going in their 4-H clubs or even some personal things," she said.

4-H Family

Fritch, 26, was a third-generation 4-H kid herself.

Growing up in Benton County, she was a state 4-H officer, including state 4-H president, a state ambassador and a state camp counselor. She completed 4-H projects in multiple subject areas. Some of her best friendships were made attending 4-H camps.

Fritch loved attending 4-H camp so much she became a program facilitator at the 4-H Center. She lives in Bauxite (Saline County), about a 35-minute drive from the 4-H Center.

"I wanted to be that adult for the kids," she said. "I wanted them to feel like they had support from somebody."

Fritch thinks she may never want to leave camp. But, if an opportunity for advancement arises someday and she's interested, she will be ready with her newly acquired Master of Science degree in agricultural and extension education.

Razorbug Diploma Tour

4-H is a national youth development program. Through Arkansas 4-H, the U of A Division of Agriculture's Cooperative Extension Service reaches young people across the state with programs in leadership, STEM, agriculture, the arts and outdoor education.

Her 4-H colleagues joined Fritch and family members when the Razorbug Diploma Tour visited the Arkansas 4-H Center on June 8 to celebrate her accomplishment. Fritch earned the master's degree from the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences by studying online, which fit her busy lifestyle and irregular work hours.

"I was very grateful to be able to get this degree online," Fritch said. "It opens opportunities in the field I've chosen and adds to my professional experience. The reason I do what I do now is because there were people who, whether they were state staff, extension agents, volunteers, parents, other youth such as my peers, they just inspired me to make my best better. That's our motto: to make our best better. I had these adults and people ahead of me who inspired me to do all the things that I accomplished."

Don Johnson presented Fritch a framed diploma for her Master of Science in agricultural and extension education. Johnson holds the rank of University Professor in the Department of Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology. He was her faculty adviser in the Bumpers College.

The U of A's Global Campus takes the Razorbug, a Volkswagen Beetle outfitted with snout, tusks, hooves, tail and razor-edged spine, on the road each summer to celebrate graduates of online degree programs across Arkansas. These graduates stayed in their home communities to continue working and taking care of families and other responsibilities as they earned degrees.

Professional Gains

Her master's degree coursework has helped her in several ways, Fritch said.

A graphic design class helped her create promotional materials for camps, a communication class improved her digital communication skills, and research and evaluation coursework helped her assess youth programs and measure outcomes.

"I feel more confident as a young professional," she said.

While the online delivery provided flexibility she needed, and professors were responsive and understanding of other demands on her time, it was not easy.

"The challenging part for me was we do camp year-round, and so sometimes I was working on my homework at 9 or 10 o'clock at night … or the one day outside of camp when I was resting.

"I value my degree even more because of those challenges," Fritch continued. "I was a little nervous about taking classes at Fayetteville when we were trying to decide if I was going to be a fully online student or not. Living down here around Little Rock or central Arkansas, it can be a challenge to get up to Northwest Arkansas, so I was very grateful to be able to do it online."

Educational Circle

Fritch also has strong family support, and her parents encouraged her and her sister to work hard. Both had multiple jobs through high school and started taking college courses at the same time. Fritch earned an associate's degree from Crowder College in Neosho, Missouri, before earning a bachelor's degree from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia.

She has worked at the 4-H Center for four years. 4-H no longer focuses primarily on agriculture. It has adapted and grown over the past decades as the needs of teens expanded.

"I work in our overnight camp program, and I teach a variety of camps and programs and educational pieces, including outdoor education and performing arts," Fritch said. "You name it, we do it out here."

4-H has been supporting Fritch all these years, too, from her time as an 11-year-old new member to receiving encouragement from her supervisor at the 4-H Center to pursue a graduate degree. The U of A online master's degree is helping her build her mentoring skills to serve today's youth the way earlier generations of 4-H leaders were there for her.

"There's a lot of opportunity to further your education through Extension and through the University of Arkansas," Fritch said. "My supervisor is super supportive of that as well, and she really pushed me to go ahead and get my master's because it opens up opportunities in Extension."