‘Adulting 101’ shares life skills with teens

METRO DETROIT — For young people, the thought of becoming an adult can be terrifying. School may teach you some things. You may get lucky with a parent or guardian passing along the wisdom of their years.

And for everyone, there is Adulting 101.

Offered through Michigan State University Extension and coordinated by 4-H, the Adulting 101 webinar series breaks down the tricky subjects of adult living for teens and young adults.

“(Adulting 101) focuses on skills that help young people become prepared for the future,” said Laurie Rivetto, an MSU Extension 4-H educator. “There’s a different topic each month, and they’re based on topics of interest that our past participants have shared that they’re interested in learning about, and we build the year to match those topic areas. It allows people to gain a little bit of knowledge from experts to help them be ready for whatever the world brings them in the future.”

The program started around 2019 with 4-H recognizing that teens had some fears about entering the adult world. As the program was further set up, the decision was made to have it be a series of free webinars to allow anyone from Iron Mountain to Kalamazoo to attend.

“It’s hard to find experts in every single community and every single county in the state of Michigan, and Michigan State Extension and 4-H is based in all the counties in Michigan,” Rivetto said. “(We are) trying to meet a need where we can provide some of these lofty topics, but we might not have an expert or might not have someone available in a particular community in a particular county to help young people, but those young people still want that information. We started offering it as a webinar series so that everyone would have the option to attend wherever they are.”

Subjects discussed range from technology matters like “Fraud Fighters: How to Stay Scam-Free” and “AI and You: Smart, Safe and Savvy,” to health and wellness with “Sleep Wellness” and “Mental Health Toolkit: Everyday Skills and Resources to Help Care for Your Mental Health,” to financial lessons with “Roadmap to a Smart Used Car Purchase” and “Informed Renter.” Experts are pulled in from organizations around the state and from the internal institutes of the MSU Extension.

“This year we have the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Department that will be doing one on emergency preparedness,” said Janice Zerbe, an MSU Extension 4-H educator. “For our last one, which is ‘Paws and Claws’ about animal care, that is done by some individuals from a pet facility. And then we bring in colleagues from other institutes that teach some of the classes about financial items, and then we also bring in some (MSU Extension experts) for the sleep wellness (class.)”

The schedule for Adulting 101 has changed every year of the program, with previous students helping the extension educators determine how to program the next year’s class based on survey results. Attendees will get what they want out of each webinar, but Rivetto says the overarching goal is to give webinar attendees a starting point into each of the subjects covered.

“The biggest overarching component is that there’s more information out there to find out about things,” Rivetto said. “One of the biggest results that I have seen over the years with this series is that participants will share that they didn’t know, first of all, that they’re not the only ones struggling with some of this information or not knowing where to go to get the information, so there was some comfort in knowing that others were trying to figure it out, too. But also, I want people to know that there’s more information out there. Maybe at the point that they’re watching the webinar or learning about information it’s not super relevant, but there are experts out there who can provide information when you have those questions in the future.”

That sense of learning about the shared difficulties and that information is out there is echoed by webinar attendees.

“(Adulting 101) was very transformative in those years where you’re moving from being in high school, where everything is kind of on one straight track, and then going to where everybody is on their own paths,” said Jael Tombaugh, a 4-H program assistant and former Adulting 101 attendee. “It was a good reminder of how not only to do those things (discussed) but that everybody’s on their own path and a good reminder that there’s people there to help you and resources out there that you can use.”

While the focus of the classes is primarily teaching young adults the soft and hard skills needed to navigate the modern world, the classes are free and open to anyone through the canr.msu.edu/adulting101 website.

“What I like about (Adulting 101) is that it isn’t a big-time commitment,” said Erin Turri, a Superior Township resident whose daughters have taken Adulting 101 classes among other MSU Extension and 4-H programs. “It’s not like I’m signing them up for a course where we’re making a commitment to (be there) every single Wednesday for two hours a night. It’s just one class, one day, for a short period of time. They hop on, they attend the class, they interact with everybody in the class, and then they’re off and then it’s done.”

Each Adulting 101 session is recorded, with attendees being able to participate though polls and question-and-answer opportunities. Live interpretation in American Sign Language is provided during the webinar.