Sarah W. Davis (she/hers)

About Sarah's Community Action Project

I am working with two 4-H groups of youth ages 11-18 in exploring their community and local environment. Through this process they will identify issues in their community and develop a plan using the 4-H Community Action Projects for the Environment (CAPE) curriculum. The goal is to create a cohort of changemakers that gain valuable communication and leadership skills and are motivated to identify an environmental issue in their community, ask a decision maker to make a change, and create an environmental stewardship project. The goal is to teach youth to critically think, investigate their local environmental issues, identify the decision makers, make a request of a decision-making group or entity and then plan and design an environmental stewardship project in collaboration with an organization. Through CAPE activities and lessons youth will 1) Identify an environmental issue; 2) Create successful environmental impact on a local community; 3) Create positive environmental impact in a local community with engaged youth continuing their efforts for sustainable change; 4)Improve environmental awareness and civic action steps; and 5) Demonstrate life skills, self-efficacy and environmental impact through environmental stewardship projects. I am excited to see what the youth will come up with and the changes that they will make in their communities.

About Sarah

You can find me coordinating 4-H positive youth development and volunteer education for Sarasota County through the University of Florida IFAS Extension. As the 4-H Extension Agent, I specialize in environmental education, environmental science, cultural and natural resource interpretation. Through these disciplines I engage youth ages 5-18 in 4-H positive youth development and mentor and train the volunteers that support these efforts. I have been involved with environmental education and natural resource interpretation for over 25 years. Through environmental education I share the curiosities and mysteries of nature, instruct about ecosystems, and encourage critical thinking about science. I use the natural environment as a context for teaching and learning to build positive youth development and to support the volunteers for the Sarasota 4-H program. I firmly believe that through service, youth can begin to build the critical skills they need to make change in the world and be thriving community members in the world. When not in my 4-H role, you will find me and my spouse parenting two beautiful and smart independent 18- and 19-year-old daughters, hiking, kayaking, and camping whenever possible.

More About Me

What is your favorite memory of being in nature? 
There are so many moments to choose from – I feel very thankful and content that I was given the many opportunities growing up camping through scouts, unstructured time outside and regularly vacationing on a beautiful lake that many generations hold dear to their hearts.

What are three environmental values you try to emulate? 
I think it is really important to be the change you want to see in the world. I remind myself that this includes being a role model, practice what I teach, and also taking care of myself so I can be the change in the world.

What is one fun fact people should know about you? 
I served in the US Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa. I worked as an Agriculture Extension Agent with farmers and lived in a village. I speak Wolof and you know a word in Wolof, too. The word “wow” means "yes" in Wolof.