STAFF

4-H Wildlife Stewards Project Director

Name: Maureen Hosty

Title: Professor

Oregon State University
4-H Youth Development
(BA Recreation Administration; M.A. International Development Education, American University)

Mailing Address:  OSU Extension   4-H, Sunnyside Environmental School, 3421 SE Salmon, Portland, OR 97214

Phone: 503-916-6075
Fax: 503-916-2676
Email: Maureen Hosty

Team Role: 4-H Wildlife Stewards Project Director and Principal Investigator for the Master Science Educators Grant funded by National Science Foundation

Maureen provides overall leadership to the 4-H Wildlife Stewards Program and the 4-H Wildlife Stewards State Team. Under Maureen’s leadership and with the effort of many past and present OSU Extension staff, volunteers and community partners, the 4-H Wildlife Stewards Program was created. The program began in 1997 in Portland, Oregon. Today the program is in multiple counties throughout the state. Maureen is primarily responsible for facilitating 4-H Wildlife Stewards staff, volunteers and teachers to create, enhance and sustain the 4-H Wildlife Stewards Program and develop it into a national model.

Maureen’s background and successful experience in developing community-based youth programs is based on the strong and committed team she recruits to design and support the program. The 4-H Wildlife Stewards program is an example of a successful team model.

Robin’s focus on the team is to help 4-H Wildlife Steward volunteers and teachers build their program by marketing and promoting their Habitat Education Site to others. She has developed and written several articles to help on these topics and is a co-author of the new 4-H Wildlife Stewards Promotional video.

Robin is also involved in helping volunteers and teachers understand and work with students – the Junior 4-H Wildlife Stewards. She has developed a training module for teaching volunteers the Stages of Child Development and teaches both teachers and volunteers how to work with students to keep portfolios or records of their project. She also teaches curriculum for the Habitat Education Sites.

Robin brings experience in outdoor learning environments as a current member of the Oregon 4-H Conference Center and Camp Advisory Committee, state 4-H Natural Sciences Committee, state 4-H Horse Development committee and Agriculture In the Classroom board of directors.

One of Maggie’s roles on the team is to help 4-H Wildlife Steward volunteers and teachers to appreciate the wonder of birds. Birds occur in a myriad of shapes and sizes and are a joy to observe with their diverse behaviors. They are often the most visible wildlife that youth can observe during the school day are often the first wildlife to visit a newly restored or enhanced schoolyard habitat education site.

Maggie has also been heavily involved in the creation, teaching and design of the 4-H Member School Advancement Program. This aspect of the 4-H Wildlife Stewards Program gives participating Member schools guidelines and recognition for meeting the requirements of creating and sustaining Habitat Education Sites on School grounds. She is also part of the team creating the Junior 4-H Wildlife Stewards Program and she loves to expound on the importance of creating a Project Notebook for your schoolyard education site.

Maggie brings much practical experience working with volunteers, teachers, community agencies and students creating, maintaining and sustaining education sites on school grounds as the 4-H Wildlife Stewards program coordinator in Benton County. Prior to her position as the 4-H Outreach Agent Maggie provided the leadership for the Groundwater Quality Education Program in Benton County. Her background working with youth and natural resources is evident in her excitement about the 4-H Wildlife Stewards Program.

4-H Wildlife Stewards Curriculum Specialist

Virginia is responsible for state-wide educational leadership of the camping, natural science and horticulture projects in 4-H. She is a Certified Interpretive Trainer (CIT) with National Association for Interpretation. Beginning in 1995, the Oregon 4-H program began to revitalize and redesign its natural science project areas. Virginia provided leadership for the revitalization teams. She authored or co-authored publications in support of this effort including 4-H Wetland Wonders, Our Water World 4-H Marine Science Discovery Project; Oregon 4-H Earth Science Leader Guide and Of People and Fish 4-H Natural Science and Cultural Discovery Program. She is currently working on a new curriculum to support the 4-H Wildlife Stewards Program entitled What Can we Learn at the Habitat Area Pond? A 4-H Model for Scientific Inquiry.