By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post

The challenges faced when a college graduate enters the “real world” is the basis for a first-time partnership between Hays Area Young Professionals and the Ellis County Extension Council for an upcoming panel discussion aimed to ease the transition from college to the real world.

Real World 101 will offer advice from recent college graduates and young professionals on topics such as finding a new job, fitting into a new community, paying off college loans, finding housing and more.

Audrey Werth, HAYP member and newly elected member of the ECEC, said the council has spent the last few years developing programs for seniors and wondered if it was time to focus on college seniors.

Werth remembered some of the questions she had when she graduated from college two years ago.

“I had no idea where to even go to vote. I don’t read the newspaper. People my age don’t read the newspaper. … It’s online stuff,” she said. “There were just some things I had to learn the hard way, and it would of been a lot of easier if someone told me these things before.”

Werth said the council  brainstormed with other HAYP members, asking, “What could have made your life easier growing up and getting into the real world?”

The two groups came up with many ideas and decided the first program will focus on paying off financial aid and  finding housing.

Werth said future programs will include topics such as health insurance and retirement plans.

Real World 101 is scheduled for 7 p.m. April 21 in the Cody Commons Room in the basement of Fort Hays State University’s Memorial Union.

For more information, contact the Ellis County Extension Council at (785) 628-9430 or email HAYP at
 [email protected].

K-State Research and Extension

MANHATTAN – Outreach, innovation and service would be hallmarks of the five Kansas initiatives which are to be recognized by Kansas State University’s Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development as Leaders of the Year for 2015.

“These Kansans have demonstrated outstanding leadership in business and service to communities and families,” said Clare Gustin, chair of the board of directors of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development. “We are especially pleased to have an award this year which recognizes the efforts by Kansas 4-H to reach out to diverse populations in southwest Kansas.”

This year’s award categories and winners are:

Agribusiness – Matt Wolters, Surefire Ag, Atwood.

Business & Entrepreneurship – Ward Morgan, CivicPlus, Manhattan. Morgan is a native of Oberlin.

Community Service – Dennis Vanderpool, Associated Youth Services, Kansas City.

Tourism, Hospitality, Retail – Sherrie Conklin, Forgotten Item Market, Burden.

Multicultural Diversity – 4-H Reaching New Families, Southwest Kansas.

The winners will receive their awards at a luncheon in Manhattan on April 28.

Technology in agriculture is changing rapidly. Agricultural entrepreneurs Matt and Josh Wolters and Blaine Ginther saw an opportunity to develop customized equipment for application of crop inputs. They launched their company on a farm north of their hometown of Atwood. Surefire Ag Systems can attach to existing equipment such as planters so as to also be able to apply crop nutrients and pest controls. Surefire’s Quickdraw system is an automated, electronically controlled spray tender system which automates batch mixing of crop inputs. Farm Industry News identified the Quickdraw as one of the top five Game Changers of 2015. The company now employs 35 people and has sold products to 47 states, six Canadian provinces and beyond. For more information, see www.surefireag.com.

Ward Morgan, an Oberlin native, is founder and CEO of the Manhattan-based software company CivicPlus. CivicPlus creates and hosts websites for 1,700 city and county governments across the nation. The company has won more than 250 website awards for its clients. CivicPlus employs 200 and recently built a five story, $11 million office building in downtown Manhattan. Morgan has invested in other initiatives to revitalize the downtown part of the city. For more information, see www.civicplus.com.

Associated Youth Services serves disadvantaged youth across Kansas, with a residential center for temporary housing in Kansas City plus offices in Hutchinson and Garden City. AYS provides services such as community health, drug and alcohol treatment, GED preparation, residential care, and foster care. When Dennis Vanderpool became CEO in 1998, AYS served 300-400 children per year. Now, AYS serves 4,000-5,000 children per year. For more information, see www.aysusa.org.

Sherrie Conklin and her family live at Burden. One day while doing her Christmas baking, she found that she was out of powdered sugar – and her home is 25 miles from stores in Winfield and 55 miles from Wichita. In order to provide local access to needed supplies, she and her husband created a new, locally-owned grocery store called Forgotten Item Market. In addition to groceries, the store offers custom-made items from local artisans such as a woodworker, quilter, and jewelry maker. Sherrie even offers a custom shopping service for her elderly customers. For more information, email [email protected].

“Mejor servicio” is the Spanish translation of “major service,” as stated in the 4-H pledge. In 2013, 4-H leaders in southwest Kansas launched an initiative to help new families in the region experience the benefits of 4-H, including bilingual club ceremonies and family activities.  Businessmen Lee Borck of Innovative Livestock Services, Inc. and Steve Irsik of Royal Farms Dairy, plus regional K-State Research and Extension specialist Debra Bolton, state 4-H Leader Barbara Stone and the Kansas 4-H Foundation supported this effort. Five new clubs have now been formed involving 122 youth within 77 families in Finney, Ford, Gray, and Kearney counties. For more information, see www.youtube.com/watch?v=QINbDPxQoVg

The 2015 Huck Boyd Leaders of the Year winners were selected by entrepreneurship students in K-State’s College of Business. Each year the Huck Boyd Institute selects its leaders of the year from among those featured on its weekly Kansas Profile radio program and column during the previous 12 months. Kansas Profile is distributed by the K-State Radio Network and K-State Research and Extension News Media Services to radio stations and newspapers state-wide.

The Huck Boyd Institute is a public/private partnership between K-State Research and Extension and the Huck Boyd Foundation. The foundation office is at the Huck Boyd Community Center in Phillipsburg. The institute office is at Kansas State University in Manhattan.

KHI

PRINCETON, N.J. – Riley County ranks healthiest in Kansas and Woodson County is the least healthy place in the state, according to the sixth annual County Health Rankings, released today by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (UWPHI). The Rankings are available at countyhealthrankings.org.

The Rankings are an easy-to-use snapshot comparing the health of nearly every county in the nation. The local-level data allows each state to see how its counties compare on 30 factors that influence health including education, housing, violent crime, jobs, diet, and exercise.

According to the 2015 Rankings, the five healthiest counties in Kansas, starting with most healthy, are Riley, followed by Johnson, Pottawatomie, Stevens, and Jewell. Ellis County finished just out of the Top 10 at No. 11.

The five areas in the poorest health, starting with least healthy, are Woodson, Decatur, Cherokee, Greenwood, and Labette.

Nationally, this year’s Rankings show that the healthiest counties in each state have higher college attendance, fewer preventable hospital stays, and better access to parks and gyms. The least healthy counties in each state have more smokers, more teen births, and more alcohol related car crash deaths. This report also looks at distribution in income and the links between income levels and health.

The Rankings also revealed the following national trends:

Premature death rates are dropping, with 60 percent of the nation’s counties seeing declines. But for many counties these rates are not improving – 40 percent of counties are not making progress in reducing premature death.

One out of four children in the U.S. lives in poverty. Child poverty rates are more than twice as high in the unhealthiest counties in each state than in the healthiest counties.

Violent crime rates are highest in the South. Violent crime rates, which affect health, well-being, and stress levels, are highest in the Southwest, Southeast, and Mississippi Delta Regions.

Having a job influences health. Unemployment rates are 1.5 times higher in the least healthy counties in each state as they are in the healthiest counties. During the recession, counties in the West, Southeast, and rust belt region of the U.S. were hit hardest by growing unemployment. Many, but not at all, of these counties have seen their unemployment rates drop since the recession ended in 2010.

“In the six years since the County Health Rankings began, we’ve seen them serve as a rallying point for change,” said Bridget Catlin, PhD, MHSA, co-director of the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps. “Communities are using the Rankings to inform their priorities as they work to build a Culture of Health.”

The County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program offers data, tools, and resources to help communities throughout their journey to build a Culture of Health. Also part of the program is the RWJF Culture of Health Prize which honors communities that are working together to build a healthier, more vibrant community.

The Kansas Health Institute is news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.