Leadership education builds skills for new leaders
Better governance. Growing local leadership. Increased civic participation. Communities strive to achieve all of these. Extension’s leadership and civic engagement team helps.
Minnesotans are seeking more new leaders to step in to do the work. As civic organizations change, they need different kinds of leaders to face the future. Meanwhile, many community members aren’t aware of existing leadership opportunities or haven’t yet been invited to contribute and lead.
Growing Local Leadership is a program designed by Extension to draw more Northwest Minnesotans into formal community leadership. One session was led by Jennifer Aranda, Extension educator, with Raven Warren, program coordinator, at the Shooting Star Casino Conference Center. Participant Soleiman Farokhzad took time to connect with speaker Victoria McWane-Creek. Both reside in northwestern Minnesota.
Highlights
- 4-H reaches youth in Mahnomen County and through White Earth 4-H, ensuring learning opportunities that meet the needs and interests of all young people.
- 4-H’ers in the county have donated more than 600 pounds of food to the Helping Hands Food Shelf.
- U of M Farm Family of the Year: The Askelson family raises a herd of about 130 bison, as well as alfalfa, corn and soybeans. Michael is a township board member, fire department safety officer and regional director for the Minnesota Bison Association. Megan leads 4-H clubs and serves on school and wellness committees.
- Extension family resiliency staff delivered Taxes 101, a series of webinars for individuals working with low- and moderate-income households to help them during tax season and to learn financial management tools.
- Extension scouting programs assist wheat growers in detecting pests. For example, the cereal leaf beetle was detected in Mahnomen County by Extension’s Integrated Pest Management Scouts in summer 2023, and the survey actively scouted new farms to track the pest’s range in summer 2025.
- Rusty’s Cooking Club offers healthy activities for preschool-aged children and their parents, grandparents, and childcare staff. Rusty gets children’s attention via a short video, and their caregivers receive a monthly recipe packet to create special memories in the kitchen. Rusty visited Mahnomen and showed families how to make Good Berry Salad, a kid-friendly dish inspired by Manoomin Salad. Families learned about the significance of wild rice and the Wild Rice River’s presence in Mahnomen.
Mahnomen County office
Extension has 14 regional offices supporting all 87 counties in Minnesota.
Mahnomen County partners with Extension to deliver practical education and research you can use at home, at work and in your community. More about Extension in our county.
About the Minnesota 87 project
Spend time in any Minnesota county, and you will almost certainly encounter University of Minnesota Extension. Our faculty and staff, volunteers, participants, alumni and partners are woven into the fabric of rural, urban and suburban Minnesota life. This project showcases Extension in action through photos, stories and a sampling of the many ways Extension has touched the lives of people in every county.