Stephanie Fontana starts as program representative for county
clubs
Stephanie Fontana has joined the San Benito County University of
California Cooperative Extension staff as the 4-H program
representative.
Fontana has worked part time as the 4-H program representative
for Santa Cruz County and will now take on the role full time,
splitting her slate between both counties. San Benito County has
been without a program representative since 2007 when Pat Johns
retired after eight years in the role.
Stephanie Fontana starts as program representative for county clubs
Stephanie Fontana has joined the San Benito County University of California Cooperative Extension staff as the 4-H program representative.
Fontana has worked part time as the 4-H program representative for Santa Cruz County and will now take on the role full time, splitting her slate between both counties. San Benito County has been without a program representative since 2007 when Pat Johns retired after eight years in the role.
“There were many conversations about how San Benito was left without leadership and we thought it wasn’t fair,” Fontana said, of conversations with UC officials.
When funding became available this year, the position was reinstated part time. Fontana said her role as program representative is to oversee the 10 local clubs and to coordinate countywide programming such as summer camp.
“I’ve really seen it from all sides,” she said. “From the kids, leaders and staff, there are so many sides.”
Fontana was a 4-H member in Santa Cruz, where she grew up, for eight years. As a college student studying early childhood education at Cabrillo College, she volunteered as a club leader for two years. She was working at a preschool when she”heard through the grapevine” about the program representative job. She said her aunt was at a Farm Bureau function in Santa Cruz where the opening was mentioned.
“She called me at 10 p.m. at night and the application was due at 4 p.m. the next day,” Fontana said.
She took the job and for the last three years, she split her time between working as a preschool teacher and the 4-H program representative.
“4-H is really my passion,” she said.
One of her recent accomplishments with the Santa Cruz program was collaborating with master gardeners to offer programs for the 4-H students at a youth garden.
“They cleaned it up for the 4-H kids,” she said. “We have an enthusiastic group that helps with irrigation.”
The master gardeners have also offered programs to teach the 4-H students about different aspects of gardening.
“It’s my latest and greatest accomplishment,” she said, with a smile.
Fontana has been on the job in San Benito since Aug. 20 and said she is getting to know more about the 10 clubs, the leaders and the students involved. Though she is still settling in, she has a few ideas of programs she’d like to start in San Benito County, such as a countywide summer camp or getting involved with 4-H’s national initiative Science, Engineering and Technology (SET.)
Fontana is in the UC Cooperative Extension office in the Veterans Memorial Building on Monday and Tuesdays, but she is looking forward to getting out and meeting more of the students at events such as the upcoming San Benito County Fair.
“I know I’m the new kid in town, but I did show here when I was 16,” she said.
She has already been impressed by how well known the 4-H program is in the community.
“In Santa Cruz, I am always explaining what 4-H is,” she said. “Here, everyone knows what it is, which is weird, but it’s nice because there is so much community support for them.”
Fontana estimated there are 300 to 400 students involved in 4-H clubs in San Benito County and the volunteer club leaders are a mix of parents, business owners and community members.
“San Benito really has a unique program,” she said. “They are very fortunate to have an endowment.”
The Georgia Wapple Fraser endowment allows students to travel to regional, state and national leadership conferences, something that other counties’ clubs can only do with lots of fundraising.
Fontana first got involved in 4-H as a student, when a school friend was part of a club in Santa Cruz, where she grew up. As a suburban kid, she started out raising rabbits before moving onto lambs, pigs and poultry.
“I also did arts and crafts,” she said.
4-H was her only opportunity to do the livestock projects because the schools she attended did not have FFA programs.
“What I really got out of it was an understanding of what community is,” she said, of her time as a 4-H member. “I know what people mean when they say it takes a village to raise a child because I had so many good leaders my life took a turn for the better.”
Fontana described herself as a quiet, shy kid when she was growing up and added that she had a sick parent at home.
“What it did was it took me out of an environment with a lot of unhappiness,” she said. “It was nice to have somewhere else to go and they helped me grow as an individual.”
The projects she worked on, which required public speaking and presentation made her “outgoing and enthusiastic,” she said. “It made a big impact and helped me grow as a young leader.”
As she settles into her role she has an idea of what influence she wants to have on the next generation of 4-H members.
“I hope they get our core values – leadership, life skills and citizenship,” she said. “I think about the kids in the program and what is going on in their lives. We can make an impact.”
