4-H & Awards

4-H in the United States is a youth organization administered by the United States Department of Agriculture Cooperative Extension System with the mission of "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development."

The four "H"'s stand for Heart, Head, Hands, and Health. The organization serves over 9 million members in the United States from ages 5 to 21 in almost 100,000 clubs. 4-H clubs and related organizations now exist in many other countries as well; the organization and administration varies from country to country.

The goal of 4-H is to develop leadership, citizenship, and life skills of youth through mostly experiential learning programs. Though typically thought of as an agriculturally focused organization as a result of its history, 4-H today encourages members to learn about many topics, such as geographic information systems, computer science, and even public speaking.

The foundations of 4-H began around the start of the twentieth century, in the work of several people in different parts of the United States who were concerned about young people. A focal point in 4-H is idea of practical and 'hands-on' learning, which came from the desire to make public school education more connected to rural life. Early programs tied both public and private resources together for the purpose of helping rural youth.

During this time, researchers at experiment stations of the land-grant universities and USDA saw that adults in the farming community did not readily accept new agricultural discoveries. But, educators found that youth would "experiment" with these new ideas and then share their experiences and successes with the adults. So rural youth programs became a way to introduce new agriculture technology to the adults.

A. B. Graham started one such youth program in Clark County, Ohio in 1902, which is considered the birth of the 4-H program in the United States. When Congress created the Cooperative Extension Service at the USDA in 1914, it included within the CES charter the work of boys and girls clubs. These soon became organized as 4-H clubs.

Newton County, Georgia, is known as the "Southern Home of the 4-H Club." Superintendent of schools, G. C. Adams began a boys corn club there in 1904. Jacksboro, Texas also lays claim to being the home of 4-H.

The 4-H motto is "To make the best better" and the creed is "Learn to do by doing."