ISU students will be helping out at the 4-H Building at this year’s Iowa State Fair. The fair is currently employing ISU interns to organize over 3,800 exhibits presented by young students from across the state.

4-H is a youth program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, intended to educate young people through experimentation and the knowledge from agricultural institutions such as Iowa State. Although it is intended for young people from fourth grade to high school seniors, Iowa State also has a collegiate 4-H actively involved in youth activities and the Iowa State Fair.

Many of the interns have agricultural backgrounds or are former 4-H members. However, they are employing interns from other fields as well in order to help organize the many different projects that will be on display.

Courtney Determan, junior in agriculture education, is one of the interns in charge of volunteers. It’s her responsibility to organize and recruit more than 200 people to help the 4-H students display their hard work. Determan, like the other interns, is responsible for helping the kids have a good time, so she is looking for all the help she can get for this year’s fair.

“A lot of our volunteers come from high school students and current 4-H members … you don’t really have to have experience at the fair, we’re just trying to reach out to more people.”

For instance, 4-H is employing interns from the apparel and merchandising department. 4-H has unique involvement in fashion design and marketing. ISU students have been involved with 4-H through education programs that address things like shopping smart and creative design.

Members of the 4-H will be presenting their apparel designs at the fair this year, but will also be competing at a pre-fair competition at Merle Hay Mall. The competition is Aug. 12-14 at Merle Hay Mall, and will determine the winners of the state competition for this year.

The contest scoring is based on the display and creativity of the work along with a runway-style fashion show. Each of the competitors will also be required to do a write-up and interview with the judges and will be given points for their performance in each category to determine the winners. Awards will be presented to the contest winners during the fashion show in the Bruce L. Rastetter 4-H Exhibits Building.