For several years, Henderson County 4-H Council has offered a $400 college scholarship to a senior in the program. For quite some time, developing criteria for the scholarship has become difficult. Starting in 2015, the Council has changed the requirements for the scholarship to state that the youth must fill out the 4-H Achievement Application to be considered. In 2016 alone we had 5 applicants and 1 state winner. In 2017 we will have 2 State Silver Winners, 1 State Bronze Winner, and 3 clover level winners. The achievement program is not only helping our county out by recognizing the youth, but the silver and bronze winners will have a big portion of State Teen Conference fees covered for winning those awards. 

In 2018 we had 1 State Silver Winner & 2 Clover Level 5 Winners.  In 2019 we had 1 gold winner and emerald candidate, 1 silver winner, 3 clover level 5 winners, 1 Clover Level 4 winner, 2 Clover Level 3 winners, and 1 Clover level 2 winner. The program in Henderson County is growing by leaps and bounds.

The achievement program is also helping the youth out in other areas as well, as they can take the applications to scholarship or college interviews and show solid documentation on their experiences in 4-H. By youth filling out the achievement application, we are better able to give them more opportunities on a state level.  We had 3 youth that saw the benefit of being involved in 4-H and all 3 were selected to serve on the Kentucky 4-H Teen Council for the 2018-2019 year.  

In addition to Henderson County, when I arrived in Christian County in January, I began to coach two outstanding 4-Hers for the Achievement Program.  Both were selected to be interviewed for Gold and one of them received Gold at teen conference 2019.