Kentucky 4-H aims to engage youth through hands-on experiences where they can build leadership competencies at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. The Kentucky 4-H State Teen Council and various leadership boards provide experiences for senior 4-H’ers to build upon their leadership skills in the core area of their interest at the advanced level. 

It is a goal of Kentucky 4-H that youth who are interested in applying to run as a Kentucky 4-H State Officer have state-level opportunities to fully develop as a leader, therefore the Kentucky 4-H Leadership Bootcamp was created in 2016. Senior level 4-H’ers are invited to the Kentucky 4-H Leadership Bootcamp. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the 2021 Leadership Boot Camp was held virtually. 28 youth members from 20 Kentucky counties completed the day-long experience. The youth had the opportunity to participate in exercises that would empower them to lead within their community at an advanced level through state-level 4-H opportunities.     

Marshall County had a brand new to 4-H youth participate in this event.  This was the first time Marshall County had representation at Leadership Bootcamp.  When asked what she learned and/or liked about Leadership Boot Camp, the 4-Her responded…”I loved the 4-H workshop it was very fun and interesting…I learned was about officers. There are state officers and others…I (also) learned some stuff about parliamentary (procedure).  There was actually a lot of stuff but I'm going to go with privileged motions. Privileged motions are to address an issue, such has a violation to parliamentary (procedure).   3 things I liked. I loved how they had different people to come speak for us and teach us different things. Another thing I liked was how we got to meet people from other places and experience something new. One more thing I like was how we did interviews at the end. They asked us questions and it was a 1 on 1 session and they asked questions and gave you feedback.”

As you can tell from her write-up, this Marshall County 4-Her learned quite a bit during Leadership Boot Camp.  The fact it was virtual this year probably helped her actually be able to attend, because if had been in-person/hybrid there would have been limiting factors such as costs and transportation.  This 4-Her is determined to continue growing in her leadership skills by being involved in the Marshall County 4-H Youth Development programs.