My 4-H Story

     The local paper is doing a 4-H/FFA insert here soon, and asked me to write up a first person account on the impact 4-H has had on my life. Here's my 4-H story:

            My name is Rachel George. I was a 4-H member for eleven years, and for the last three have been involved in 4-H as a volunteer leader. 4-H has been a large part of my life since I began the program, molding the person I am today and taking me many places I never would have dreamed of visiting otherwise.

I have a fairly common beginning to my 4-H story: a shy young girl who joined 4-H to practice cooking and sewing. By the time I “graduated” 4-H, I was no longer shy, wasn’t very practiced in the home economics department, but loved showing my pigs, going to leadership conferences and teaching others about my 4-H experiences, and still do to this day. My 4-H career began when I was in third grade and my mom volunteered to start an after school club, focusing on the Adventures in Family Living project. As I grew older, my interests expanded to include pigs, and eventually leadership. When I didn’t have the chance to become a State Ambassador, I was thankfully given the opportunity to become a Know Your Government Conference Facilitator (CF) – my involvement in 4-H leadership is history from there.

            The first year I was a CF, I wasn’t really sure what to expect, I just knew I wanted to be a part of planning the conference. I was drained after our training weekend in January, but I would not trade that experience, or my experience from conference weekend. This was my first look at how a conference works – the time and effort needed to organize one, the teamwork, the camaraderie and the support of each other behind one. I returned the next year, and the next, and the next…

            The support system I found in these teams is part of what kept me going. I have often said that I don’t know where I would be today without my involvement in 4-H, and more importantly without the friends that I made. The friendships I made across the state and country through my leadership involvement are what kept me sane and alive through my teenage years, and I am so thankful for that.

            My 4-H involvement taught me to track spending, allowing me to gauge how I could pay for a college education without taking student loans. 4-H taught me how to keep good records, leading me to be able to have a full two-page resume for job interviews this spring as a first year teacher. Now I lean on my 4-H experiences in order to be successful in my first teaching job.

            What else has kept me coming back each day for fourteen years? I just love being a part of 4-H. I know a lot of people, teens and adults, feel the same way I do. The teacher in me helps, but it’s more than having experience with kids – it’s seeing the light bulb come on when how to judge, cast a vote, or fit and show an animal is understood, and knowing that I had a hand in teaching them how to accomplish it.

            Since becoming a “real” 4-H leader, I have moved to be a part of the Know Your Government Core Committee, helping plan the conference in its entirety. As a collegiate 4-H member I was given the opportunity twice to facilitate at the National 4-H Conference, held each year in Washington, D.C. A fellow facilitator and friend encouraged me to apply for the Wonders of Washington program, where I would move to D.C. for nearly four months and become a Program Assistant. Her encouragement landed me in D.C. this spring, where I learned, and then taught, the history and stories of our nation’s capitol city.

            4-H isn’t just about agriculture – it’s about life. It’s about science, technology, forestry and healthy living too. As the largest youth development program in the world 4-H serves millions of members and volunteer leaders who “bleed green.” I am just one.