4-H over the years

Devyn LeBlanc
ECB Publishing, Inc.

Since 4-H began more than 100 years ago, it has become the nation's largest youth development organization. The 4-H idea is simple: help young people and their families gain the skills needed to be proactive forces in their communities and develop ideas for a more innovative community. The goal of the program is to extend agricultural education to rural youth by organizing clubs and “learning by doing.”
The roots of 4-H began at the turn of the century when progressive educators started to emphasize the needs of young people and to introduce nature study as a basis for a better agricultural education. In the late 1800's, researchers discovered adults in the farming community did not readily accept new agricultural developments on university campuses, but found that young people were open to new thinking and would experiment with new ideas and share their experiences with adults. Rural youth programs then introduced new agriculture technology to communities. The idea of practical and hands-on learning came from the desire to connect public school education to country life. Building community clubs to help solve agricultural challenges was a first step toward youth learning more about the industries in their community.
By 1902, A.B. Graham started a youth program in Clark County, Ohio, which is considered the birth of 4-H in the United States. T.A. Erickson started local agricultural after-school clubs and fairs in Douglas County, Minn., that same year. 4-H style programs were first established in north Florida, including Suwannee, Columbia, Madison and Gadsden counties. The boys participated in corn clubs, while the girls were active in tomato clubs. In 1910, Jessie Field Shambaugh developed the clover pin with an H on each leaf. By 1912, they received their now known name, 4-H clubs.
The Cooperative Extension System was created in 1914. The Cooperative Extension System is a partnership of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), more than 100 land grant universities and more than 3,000 county offices across the nation. Cooperative Extension combines the expertise of federal, state, and local governments and is designed to meet the needs of research, knowledge and educational programs.
Today, 4-H serves youth in rural, urban and suburban communities in every state across the nation. 4-H members are tackling the nation's top issues, from global food security, climate change and sustainable energy to childhood obesity and food safety. 4-H out-of-school programs, in-school enrichment programs, clubs and camps offer a wide variety of Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) opportunities. These opportunities range from agricultural and animal science to rocketry, robotics, environmental protection and computer science.