Theme in Quotes

 "So, I started out as one of those younger people. I attribute an incredible amount of who I am as a woman and as a leader today to being a part of 4-H and being able to lead, not just my friend, but to meet people from other places. And to be a leader in working with them as well and (learning) “don’t be afraid of people's differences”- you know, to get to know people that come from different places- it was very important to me being a leader." Lauren Nance 

 

 "Yes, cool, yes. Let's be honest- right- you guys were in Scituate- we were in Providence, they/we could have run very healthy clubs and have never interacted. We could have, we could have done just that- but somehow (I don't even know, we’d have to ask them, you know, what that conversation looked like) how they decided to get us (sic-urban and rural kids) together." Lauren Nance

"You know, that it's more like 'a holding' them than a 'pushing' (type of learning) , yeah you know like 'come on over here with me and learn this' as opposed to ‘go out there and achieve' - they were right there learning along with us. And I thought that was a great experience." Lauren Nance

 

"Yes, definitely-opportunities to meet people- I don’t even think I knew at the time that we had farms in Rhode Island- you know my world consisted of the City of Providence- and I thought that was everything. So I was definitely able to branch out in a safe space and have a common bond with people doing other things in my state-  I went on the join City Year because it reminded me of 4-H so all of those things are were important, and the opportunities to travel (with 4-H youth programs) you know it made me more worldly-" Lauren Case

 

 "You know- and you know at 11, I would not have called it diversity but I just liked that there was a variety of friends from all different walks. That we all had something in common regardless of me living in the city, you living in the sticks- you know we still had a commonality with this 4-H thing- so I just thought it was cool after a while." Darryl Marsh

"You know, and it lead to a lot of opportunities- you know- having my mom (Francis Marsh), Ms. Connie and Ms. Pat and Shirley and Whitney-  really like put me in positions to succeed- gave me a lot of positive reinforcement- early on- where I don’t think a lot of kids get that. Right now? Sure. But- definitely I feel like I was one of the lucky ones that I got to be able to represent 4-H on the national level early- you know- both as a delegate and then as a staff member. So you know- that gives me a unique skill set because now at/in high school- you know- 14, 15, 16- I can say you know that I helped to put these events together." Darryl Marsh

“And throughout my time in high school the days and weekends that I spent at 4-H and at the conferences, they really helped me to be myself without worrying about what people in high school thought because people in high school weren't the most important people to me.” Amy Pennington

" Of course I would never have thought of it then- that I might be a teacher and that's where those skills would go- but I really did feel like the kind of community we were building together was making the world a friendlier place. And Yeah- and it was definitely a much nicer group of people than I knew from other places." Amy Pennington

"So- one thing I feel like - the whole time we were in 4-H I was incredibly shy and I never felt like I could just, like, be myself outside the group of 4-Hers. And I think the biggest impact 4-H had on me personally was giving me that confidence to do something silly- and it didn’t matter um how people saw me because of that because of that- because- even if I didn’t seen them anymore -I had already had this network of people who I really cared about- who also cared about me-even when I was weird, or grumpy, or feeling antisocial there was never and judgment there- so from and from the adults- too not just the kids. And so I learned  (my mom and dad are great parents) but I think I learned a lot about what adults should be like for children-and for teenagers in particular and what teens could gain from a caring adult-who wasn’t their parent." Amy Pennington

"Sure so you know what I guess what I was younger- we (our 4-H club) were more locally focused- right? So I was kind of in my club we didn't do too much kind of branching out- but as I traveled more you know -getting to know different people is is a real eye-opening experience. You know even though most of the people that I predominantly spent the time with that were different than myself were from a different place were in, you know, the beef cattle industry so I mean that alone is very pigeonholed to a certain demographic. But I still, you know, learned a lot from other people so, you know as I got older and I met other people, more urban people, people of different backgrounds and got to travel with people you know I think the more exposed to- the more you're curious right? So I think I just got more curious as I got exposed to different things." Barbara Connors

 "Yeah- you know the leadership that I've had over -you know -all my 4-H career has been instrumental and monumental, and without the caring adults that we had -I think of your mom too -like just wonderful people that you know just introduced us to so many different things and believed in us. And knew that we could do it and gave us the room to explore it on our own- and said okay well maybe that's you know maybe that didn't work out the way you wanted to but let's try this again." Barbara Connors