Carol Norden
State ESP Meritorious Support Award

Professional Achievements:Carol has made significant contributions to youth programs from the local, state, and national levels as demonstrated by the achievements and outcomes of her youth horticulture program in Wake County, in the state, and nationally as a member of the National 4-H Strategic Directions team for her work on behalf of 4-H volunteers and inclusion of all youth, and her work with the National Junior Horticultural Association.

Over the years Carol has had extensive experience in working with young people and adults. Her successful experiences and delight in seeing youngsters succeed and have fun have been most helpful as she has shared and trained other volunteers, teachers, agents, and parents how to use horticulture with 4-H'ers. Her 4-H'ers received 13 national/grand national awards for their horticulture projects, one is a national officer in NJHA, and her Senior and Junior Hort Judging Teams placed first and second, respectively in State competition; the Senior Team competed at NJHA competition in Memphis, TN in October 1998. Carol's belief in youth leadership training and inclusive education were evident in the outstanding success of her Youth Hort Inclusion Class conducted during the summer, where she trained 9 teens to serve as instructors/assistants to 30 youngsters, ages 4-17. Half of the class were special needs youngsters and the others had normal to gifted abilities.

Significance: Carol has made significant contributions to 4-H leaders across the State as evidenced by their written evaluations at workshops and presentations, and their e-mails/calls for feedback on changes leaders are making in their programs. Having used two teen assistants in one of the workshops gave leaders an understanding of how they could provide leadership training to older 4-H'ers and let them provide assistance to their other youth. More people across the State have become better informed of the opportunities available to 4-H'ers, and especially how to use horticulture to motivate youngsters to achieve excellent results in life skills development. On a county level more 4-H'ers gave presentations than ever before. Requests to offer the Master Volunteer Horticulture Training is an attestation to volunteer desires to learn more about youth horticulture.

Carol is a tireless worker when it comes to youth. She will always do her very best to see that the job at hand is done in a very professional manner to the best of her abilities. Carol is a dedicated professional that will stay the course until the task is completed.

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