Matthew Pryor and Thomas Gilbert, two Bartow County 4-H’ers, selected by statewide interview received the high honor of attending National 4-H Conference in Washington D.C. Being selected to attend this event Is one of the top honors in Georgia 4-H and earns a Master 4-H’er status for these two young men. The goals of this event are to enhance the skills and knowledge of participants so that they can be more effective leaders in their communities, and to share ideas and form recommendations to guide the future of national 4-H youth development programs.
The week-long conference includes workshops, speakers and a visit to Capitol Hill. The students visited individually with Georgia members of the United States Congress and Senate. In addition, they participated in focus group work sessions with youth from all 50 states, received leadership training, experienced a personality profile analysis, and enjoyed cultural and historical tours. The conference was held from April 11-16, 2015.
Gilbert’s focus group was College Preparation through non-formal education, focusing entirely on the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education Coalition program. His group of 4-H’ers worked on how to increase STEM participation, how to sustain long term involvement, and how to improve STEM curriculum while relating to world experiences. Gilbert served as Project Presenter narrating his group’s ideas to NASA.
Pryor was Project Manager of his focus group Poverty & Economy which was based on helping other youth to have opportunities to succeed regardless of their financial situation. Pryor created visuals of the ideas formed by his group which were then presented to the Housing and Urban Development Committee.