July 9, 2025 | Anoka County, Minnesota
For our third county presentation, I traveled to Anoka County to present the Metropolitan Council 4-H Climate Action Project with Aasiya, one of our team members from Anoka County.
By this point, we had already presented in Carver and Ramsey Counties, so I had a much better sense of what worked well and what could be improved. I updated the slides based on feedback from those earlier meetings and tried to make the story of the project clearer, especially how we moved from community interviews to identifying themes and recommendations.
Before the meeting, Aasiya and I rehearsed together with Lucy Tschida from the Metropolitan Council and 4-H educator Anne Stevenson. Practicing with them helped us work through our transitions, decide who would cover each part, and prepare for questions from the committee.
Lucy and Anne also came to the meeting in person to support us, which helped a lot. It was reassuring to have people there who had worked with us throughout the project and knew how much preparation had gone into it.
During the presentation, Aasiya and I shared what youth across the metro had learned from interviewing community members about climate action. We discussed the patterns we saw in the responses, the importance of community involvement and education, and some of the barriers people raised when considering environmental actions.
One thing I appreciated about presenting for a third time was seeing how much the presentation had evolved. Each county meeting gave us a slightly different audience and new feedback, and we could use what we learned to make the next presentation stronger.
The response from the Anoka County Extension Committee was especially encouraging. The committee chair, Reid Mortenson, later described our presentation as “wonderful, informative and well delivered.” Hearing that after all of the preparation and revisions meant a lot to us.
Thank you to the Anoka County Extension Committee for giving us the opportunity to share our work, and to Lucy and Anne for helping us prepare and supporting us at the meeting. This presentation reminded me that communicating community research is a process too—you keep listening, revising, and getting better each time.
