South Carolina 4-H’ers give presentation at regional leadership conference

CROSSVILLE, Tennessee — Six youth leaders from South Carolina 4-H attended and shared some of their leadership skills at a multi-state conference created to bring together teens and adults to empower and inspire them to make a positive change across the South.

The 14th annual Southern Region 4-H Teen Leadership Conference took place Sept. 20-23 at the Clyde M. York 4-H Center in Crossville and members of the South Carolina State Teen Council not only attended but were also selected to give a presentation at the event.

The South Carolina 4-H’ers who participated were: Garret Ulmer (Colleton County), S.C. 4-H State Teen Council president; Andrea Habersham (Jasper County), S.C. 4-H State Teen Council vice president; Quentin Murrell (Marion County), S.C. 4-H State Teen Council secretary; Jordan Snipes (Jasper County), S.C. 4-H State Teen Council public relations; Haleigh Tomlin (Greenville County), S.C. 4-H State Teen Council legislative liaison; and Morgan Marlett (Greenville County), S.C. 4-H State Teen Council Upstate representative.

Advised by Dawn Stuckey, Colleton County 4-H agent, and Katie Shaw, S.C. 4-H Specialist, the 4-H’ers who attended the conference are elected by their peers to State Teen Council.

“The name of the topic they presented on was ‘Leadership Through Adventure,’ and their goal was to teach kids to play different games and activities to help improve communication skills in a group or develop leadership team-building skills through these activities,” Shaw said. “So it’s mainly demonstrating games that can be played by any group to really learn the group’s leadership dynamic.”

The youth development arm of the Clemson Cooperative Extension Service, South Carolina 4-H has more than 100,000 young participants from across the state annually. Its programs cover animal science, agriculture, science, engineering, natural resources, healthy living, leadership and more.

South Carolina 4-H uses a learn-by-doing approach built on the involvement of caring adults and the knowledge and resources of Clemson University and the land-grant university system to help youth become healthy, productive and contributing members of society.