4-H Youth Development: A Time-Honored Tradition

By Darren Wallis, Vice President, North America Communications, Crop Science Division, Bayer

The global population continues to grow — but Earth and its natural resources do not. With a rapidly growing population and insufficient agricultural lands, the problem is clear: something has to change. The question is what. And the next generation of scientific leaders are the solution.

I had the privilege to meet some of these future leaders at the 2019 National Youth Summit on Agri-Science — a four-day event, for students from across the country to come together to learn about the challenges facing the future of agriculture, including global food security and sustainability, and the role they will play in addressing the challenges of feeding a growing world population, starting in their local communities.

Keynote speaker, Honorable Ted McKinney, Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agriculture Affairs, kicked-off the Summit, delivering an energizing speech to the crowd of 300 eager young students with a simple call-to-action: be a leader. McKinney emphasized the importance of the leadership skills that 4-H members will gain during their 4-H experience and the investment they are making in themselves that will drive them as future leaders.

As a 4-H alum, I appreciated someone of his status talking about the global impact these bright young students can make by challenging themselves to cultivate innovative solutions to relevant, real-world problems through their 4-H projects that not only foster personal development, but drive our communities towards a more sustainable future.

And you don’t need a job like Ted’s to be a leader. You can make a positive, lasting impact on your community by taking the communication, personal, and technical skills you learn from 4-H to lead the way. We aren’t just developing solutions to problems in our communities, we’re developing people — the 4-H way.

When it came time for me to give my welcome address, I was welcomed to the stage with an electrifying crowd of 4-H’ers, whose energy was off the charts. Looking out onto the crowd, it dawned on me just how remarkable of an experience this was; kids from all walks of life, and maybe on their first trip to DC, unified by their love of science and hope for a brighter future for us all.

This was a special moment for everyone in the 4-H community, and I wanted to impress upon them the importance of this moment. I shared with them my own experience of coming up through the 4-H program, and how I had not realized until later in life the significant role it played in shaping me to become the person I am today — both professionally as a leader in communications and personally on various levels. And that’s the beauty of it all. At some point, we can all sit back and say, “Wow that taught me a lot!”

Our world is changing, but our commitment to time-honored tradition ceases to waver, as we empower these bright young people to be active members in their communities, providing direction, insight, energy, and above all — leadership.