News Post

Three St. Joseph’s Academy juniors helped present the Louisiana 4-H Tech Club’s Healthy Living Workshop as part of the local Big Buddy Program. The workshops, offered in partnership with the Wal-Mart Foundation, took place June 7 and 10. 

Izzy Gruner, Katherine Winchester and Susanna Shields are among the LA 4-H Tech Club members who have worked to identify healthy living education as a scarcity in Louisiana. They are utilizing Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technologies to address local needs. Gruner is the project lead.

The Big Buddy Program’s mission is to advance and inspire youth by building a loving community of mentor relationships. Mentors provide positive role modeling to inspire good choices and, in turn, a healthy and rewarding life. The members of the 4-H Tech Club, sponsored by the non-profit Global Geospatial Institute (GGI), sought to help the Big Buddy Program advance its mission. GGI was founded by Fran Fetzer Harvey, a 1976 graduate of SJA, who serves as its director. 

Drawing upon their ongoing National GIS/GPS Leadership Team’s project, “Where’s the Food?” as inspiration, the team created engaging, healthy-living activities and lessons for the Big Buddy youth. 
The “Where’s the Food?” project features various GIS technologies that help the Baton Rouge community visualize problems and solutions to nutrition/health complications in the area they live. The LA 4-H Tech Club embraced the opportunity to teach Big Buddy participants about healthy living through the eyes of a mentor and a friend. 

For more information about the Louisiana 4-H Tech Club or the Global Geospatial Institute, visit www.gginstitute.org/educational-outreach.

Mindy Brodhead Averitt
Communications Director