“The trail we carve as leaders profoundly affects the next generation” Chris Fuller in “Iditarod Leadership”
KANSAS 4-H LEADERSHIP WEEKEND 2019
This year’s event was a Jungle of Leadership Fun! The Kansas 4-H Leadership Forum or KYLF as it’s fondly known by participants, is a statewide leadership event for teens and volunteers, planned by teens and volunteers. Held the weekend before Thanksgiving annually, 4-H members, volunteers and Extension staff make their way to Rock Springs Ranch for a weekend of leadership learning and fun!
This year’s keynote speaker was Chris Koch, a farmer from Alberta Canada who was born with no arms or legs. From an early age he found ways to work around his challenges so that he could be engaged in the farming operation. Truly an inspiring message of “If I Can”. . . You can learn more about his journey and inspiring approach to life at www.ifican.ca
Throughout the weekend, 4-H teens were engaged in leadership learning sessions. Ellis Co. teens, Quentin Rupp and Heather Scheck submitted a proposal to teach a workshop session for the 4th year in a row. This year’s workshop talked about different personality types and how to work in diverse groups to form a team. They reached out to 64 teens and received high ratings for their workshop.
The KS 4-H Youth Council also holds elections each year during this event. Candidates apply, do a pre-interview and if selected, make a presentation to the delegates. Jacob Schmeidler and Alexa Straub have be serving as NW KS reps on the Council in 2019. Jacob is going off the board, so he was involved in helping facilitate the election process. Six candidates, including Alexa, presented speeches about their qualifications to serve in the Youth Council.
Congratulations to Alexa, who was selected to serve a 2 year term on the 4-H Youth Council and as a member of the National 4-H Conference delegation. This group of six teens will travel to Washington DC this March to meet with the National 4-H organization at USDA and will meet with their representatives on Capitol Hill.
While the teens were meeting, volunteers from across KS were also meeting and learning ways to strengthen 4-H programming at the local level.
The KS Leadership Weekend happens each year on the same weekend before Thanksgiving and is open to those 4-H’ers 13 and older and adult volunteers. Consider joining this great event and supporting our Cottonwood 4-H’ers in 2020!