BY CLIFF SMELLEY
It was always going to be a part of her life because of the skills she learned, but 4-H has also become a job for Tara Kalb, who is currently a 4-H program assistant at the UF/IFAS Extension Office in Duval County.
Kalb, a 2019 Union County High School graduate and daughter of Alan and Lisa Holtzendorf, said a career in 4-H “just kind of happened,” beginning with a stint as a 4-H program assistant in Charlotte County, but she has enjoyed it and loves being a part of the Duval County Extension team.
“The office culture is so awesome. I’ve never worked in a healthier work environment than I have with those people,” Kalb said, adding, “They’re always ready to jump in and help at any time.”
Though she was involved in 4-H at the earliest level as a Cloverbud (ages 5-7), Kalb never envisioned working in 4-H or for UF/IFAS Extension in any capacity. She did, however, seek out an opportunity to be part of a 4-H camp staff one summer after graduating from high school. She applied for camps in Florida, Kentucky and Texas. A Texas camp located in Brentwood was the first to contact her.
The camp director told Kalb one more high-ropes instructor was needed. Kalb said her thought was, “I don’t know what that is, but sure, I’ll do it.”
It was a little disconcerting to discover what a high-ropes instructor was for someone who admits she’s terrified of heights.
“I had to jump off a telephone pole,” Kalb said. “Obviously, I had a harness and stuff on. We had to do all the activities we had our kids do.”
One of those activities included zip-lining.
“That made me cry,” Kalb said. “I was not OK with that.”
She was certainly taken out of her comfort zone, but she did get to try something new — something she has encouraged the teenagers she’s interacted with as a 4-H program assistant to do.
“I’m grateful for my experiences,” Kalb said.
4-H journey takes her to Charlotte Co.
Kalb became aware of a 4-H program assistant opening at the UF/IFAS Extension Office in Charlotte County, which was where she was planning to move to because of her fiancé (now husband), Zachary. She applied and interviewed for the position.
“Five people were at a table interviewing me,” Kalb said. “It was very weird. I had never been in an interview like that before.”
It turned out to be an eventful day, which also included shopping for a wedding dress with her now mother-in-law.
“That same day, they offered me the job,” Kalb said.
Just as being a high-ropes course instructor took her out of her comfort zone, so, too, did adjusting to life in a different county. At first, it was the typical outsider trying to fit in.
“That’s how I felt in Charlotte County until I started getting to know and spend time with the volunteers, 4-H families and 4-H’ers,” Kalb said.
The biggest adjustment was working within the policies of the University of Florida, Charlotte County government and Charlotte County 4-H when it came to implementing programs.
“There’s a lot of red tape,” Kalb said. “You have to make sure that everybody is happy.”
What made Kalb happy was working with youth. She found that it was a natural fit for her and enjoyed her experience leading the Teen Leaders club.
“I grew it from five kids to 18,” Kalb said. “I was very proud of them. I love each and every one of them.”
Kalb had the chance to see a couple of the teens she worked with in Charlotte County when she attended a recent state 4-H event. One was serving on the executive board.
“I’m so proud of them,” Kalb said. “They were both really shy in the beginning.”
Besides growing the Teen Leaders club, Kalb also helped grow Charlotte County 4-H’s county events. For example, when she arrived, 10-11 youth were participating in public-speaking county events. That number increased to 21.
“It was very exciting to see how much it grew,” Kalb said. “County events have always been super important to me. Public speaking is one of my major 4-H passions. I thought it was just awesome to see kids come out of their shells.”
They not only came out of their shells; they progressed to where they were writing their own speeches for public-speaking events.
Kalb worked alongside one of her colleagues to revamp the Charlotte County 4-H record-book system in an effort “to make it more cohesive and to hopefully get more turn-ins.”
In Kalb’s first year in Charlotte, she graded 65 record books. The number of record-book participants eventually grew to more than 130.
“It was really awesome to see that many kids do it,” Kalb said.
Kalb said fundraising was an “untapped thing” in Charlotte County, but it turned out to be quite the success when she was there, thanks to simply talking to people in the community and getting the word out about 4-H. For example, some of the youth spent three to four hours outside Winn-Dixie on a weekend and raised more than $1,200.
“So many of the teens had a really good time doing it because they got to talk about their projects and what they were doing in 4-H,” Kalb said. “So many older people who lived in the community went, ‘Oh, I was in 4-H in Illinois,’ or, ‘I was in 4-H in Ohio.’ They moved (to Charlotte County) when they retired, and they didn’t know we had a 4-H program there.”
Closer to home
Kalb became aware of a couple of positions that had opened up in the Bradford County Extension Office, but she said something just told her the timing was not right to apply.
“You’ve got to listen to the little voice inside your brain that says, ‘OK. Wait a minute. Think about it.’ It will tell you when it is right,” Kalb said.
She did, however, apply for a 4-H program assistant at the Duval County Extension Office. She applied a couple of hours before the deadline and admitted she didn’t think she’d actually get the opportunity to interview for the position.
Yet she got a phone call informing her that she did get that chance. Then, she began to think that she wouldn’t actually get hired. That thought didn’t change after her virtual interview, in which she said she botched answering question regarding her familiarity with Microsoft programs.
“I don’t know what was happening in my head,” Kalb said, adding, “I answered a completely different question. It was probably because there were five people, and it was a Zoom interview.”
Kalb said part of the interview included her having to teach a lesson.
“There aren’t a lot of lessons I can do virtually, so we did chair exercises for five minutes,” she said. “I thought it was just the oddest thing in the world.”
She obviously made a favorable impression because she later got a call with the job offer.
“It was like 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning,” Kalb said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I’m half asleep right now, but sure.’ I fell back asleep.”
She did eventually have more in-depth discussions about the job particulars when she was wide awake to make sure it was indeed something she wanted to accept. It was, so now she’s living at home in Union County and commuting to Jacksonville.
In Duval County, Kalb works with youth who live primarily in urban areas, whereas she worked with a mixture of urban and rural youth in Charlotte County.
“They’re city life. I’m not city life,” Kalb said, adding, “It’s out of my comfort zone — 100 percent.”
Yet she likes being a part of the Duval County office. A big part of that is 4-H Extension Agent Grace Carter.
“She just creates this very open, calm atmosphere for 4-H, which is really hard to get in 4-H because 4-H can be so chaotic sometimes,” Kalb said. “It’s like you’re everywhere, doing everything at one time. It’s a very calm atmosphere she creates. I really love working with her and my other program assistant, Kenedi (Mills).”
Kalb enjoyed a recent trip to a state event that included 5-6 Duval County youth. Attending state events was the highlight of Kalb’s participation in 4-H as a youth because of the friendships she made.
“I still have friends (from those events) now,” she said. “I saw a few of them at the conference I was just at.”
A busy life
A job that comes with a daily commute of two hours would seem to be enough to keep Kalb busy, but she has so much more going on in her life. That includes going to school.
Kalb, who earned her AA degree at Santa Fe College, planned to major in Agribusiness and Food Economics coming out of high school, but she said taking an economics class convinced her that major wasn’t for her.
She’s now working on a major in Psychology (with a minor in Criminal Justice) and plans to graduate with her bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida in December.
Kalb was named to the Dean’s List at UCF this past semester, which is pretty impressive considering she was balancing classes with starting a new job and the move that accompanied it. She and her husband are also renovating a house, with the couple living with Kalb’s parents until that project’s complete.
“That’s a whole task. Oh, boy. I did not sign up for that,” Kalb said with a laugh, adding, “I don’t like DIYs or crafts, so I don’t know why I thought I would like renovating a house.”
She has also started a book club in Union County called Swamp and Story Society. The club meets monthly after reading three books in different genres.
Kalb, who had been part of a book club when she lived in Charlotte County, likes reading and discovered that one of her Duval County co-workers likes to read as well.
“I was like, ‘I should really start a book club.’ It’s only me, her, my aunt and a few others who come every now and then,” Kalb said, “but it’s super fun. I really enjoy it.”
Though she’s set to graduate from UCF later this year, that won’t be the end of school. She plans to work toward a master’s degree, so Kalb will remain pretty busy for a while.
“I kind of just go with the flow,” she said. “Whatever needs to be done gets done.”
Kalb said she would like to continue working for an Extension office, either as a 4-H agent or a as a small-farms agent.
The hard part is making a final decision on what direction she wants to go in.
“I want to do everything. That’s the problem,” Kalb said. “I’ve got to pick one.”
4-H skills are useful
Whatever the future holds for Kalb, you can be sure that she’ll benefit from the skills she learned in 4-H as a youth. A hard-work ethic was instilled in her as a 4-H youth and she has already put public-speaking, interviewing and resume-making skills to use.
Cooking skills have come in handy, too, as she has started a cooking club in Duval County.
Kalb said the SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) goals that were a part of 4-H record books have been a big part of her adult life.
“People hate doing the SMART goals in the record books, but they do help,” Kalb said. “Writing down your goals helps. You can see one thing and try to drive yourself toward that one thing, that one goal. Whenever you start not writing down a goal, you say, ‘Oh, I’m just thinking about it.’ Then you start thinking about all the other things that might come after that goal. It can be very overwhelming.”
Kalb has a goal of ultimately working in Bradford County or Union County, if the opportunity arises (and the little voice inside her brain tells her the time is right), but for now she’s enjoying her current job.
“I definitely love the Duval County people,” Kalb said.
