This educator’s journeys spark curiosity in rural kids

A generator hums on a humid morning, attached to a bus packed with technology that is parked near a creek, nestled amid a forest of oak, maple and hickory in the Appalachian foothills of Southeastern Ohio. Tablets, smart boards and other digital media inside the 35-foot vehicle contrast with the natural beauty surrounding Canter’s Cave 4-H Camp in Jackson County, where high-speed internet is limited by rural and rolling landscape.

Campers, grades 5 through 7, eagerly enter the Ohio 4-H Mobile Design Classroom, provided for free on this summer day by Ohio State Extension. Christy Millhouse ’99 welcomes the kids with cheer and choices. “Everybody coming on the bus, here in the back, you can draw on tablets,” she says. “If you want to do music, you can sit in this area and try different instruments on iPads. And if you want to do coding, you can sit up front.”

Soon, Millhouse will explain the app Keynote and set campers to making short stop-motion movies on iPads, filming action they create with small plastic animals, trees, dinosaurs and cars.

As a STEM educator for Extension, the outreach arm of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, she will drive the Mobile Design Classroom to 30 towns and cities in 26 Ohio counties this year, reaching more than 4,000 youths at camps, schools, county fairs and community events.

“The bus really fulfills that mission of our land-grant university,” Millhouse says. “We are taking what we do in 4-H out into the community. The mobile classroom is an opportunity for young people to explore and try things maybe they’ve never tried before.”

At Canter’s Cave 4-H Camp, she slept the next two nights in a cabin here before driving the Mobile Design Lab 5 miles to the county seat of Jackson (population 6,184) for an outing at the city library. Millhouse considers the bus, with tech devices donated by Apple and grant funding from Google, to be a partner for underserved areas such as Jackson County, one of Ohio’s 32 Appalachia counties. Jackson residents appreciate her dedication.

Video: This is not your average school bus

“All the children who live out in the rural areas who may not have access to the internet, they’re kind of at a disadvantage,” says Melissa Sowers, children’s librarian at the Jackson City Library. “It’s important to have opportunities available to our kids because we don’t want our kids left behind.”

Millhouse aims to foster creative thinking and career possibilities—and spread awareness that Ohio 4-H offers more than agriculture education. The experience also makes Ohio State seem more attainable and approachable for young visitors. “We’re building relationships in these communities,” she says. “They can see that I’m just a normal person coming to their community to do a program, learn from them, talk with them in a normal way. It’s personal.”

Maddie Allman ’22, co-director for the 4-H STEM Camp and 4-H Youth Development educator for the Ohio State Extension office in Jackson County, says Millhouse’s engaging touch is evident. “Christy does a really great job of interacting with the kids. She rolls into town and just makes everybody smile.”

The personal connection shows at the Jackson City Library when the Mobile Design Classroom draws about 120 residents for the second consecutive year. “When the technology and these incredible opportunities come to us, that’s a miracle. Ohio State becomes part of us,” says Liz Harmon, who brought her 6- and 8-year-old daughters. “The kids get on the bus, and you can see their minds explode with possibilities.”

To make experiences like that happen, Millhouse began her first day in Jackson County by waking up at 4 a.m. at her home in Anna, Ohio, 140 miles away. From there, she traveled 30 minutes to the Ohio State Lima campus to pick up the Mobile Design Classroom, then drove the bus 3½ hours to Canter’s Cave, in time to open the bus door to campers with a smile at 9 a.m.

“I love to teach,” Millhouse says, “and I love that I get to interact and share with so many different people.”

After one session at gorgeous Canter’s Cave, a boy approaches Millhouse and says he wants to someday be an animator. He thanks her for doing the activity.

“Those are the moments when you know that what you’re doing on the bus makes a difference,” she says.