4‑H Youth Voices

Dani Jo Thatcher, Elmo, Utah

Dani Jo’s personal mission is to encourage all residents in her hometown to clean out their medicine cabinets. Dani Jo is from Emery County, Utah, a rural area that has been heavily affected by the opioid crisis. She has been working to personally battle the crisis in her local community since she lost an uncle to an accidental overdose.

Through her involvement in the Well Connected Communities initiative, she is working with other youth and adults to build a community coalition to help solve the opioid epidemic facing Emery County. She has met with the local sheriff and local pharmacists to help grow awareness and serve community members. Through presentations and efforts to encourage community members to discard unused medications at the county drop box, Dani Jo is making a positive impact in Emery County.

Florencia Tellechea, Davis County, Utah

Florencia has always loved living in Davis County – from the gorgeous landscapes, great people and unique culture, she loves the sense of community. When suicide rates in the county began to increase and mental health became an issue in the local high school, she knew she had to help. Florencia got involved in the Well Connected Communities initiative and the Mentes Sanas youth team where she joined other youth and adults to help erase the stigma around mental health in the Latino community and grow awareness on resources that are available to help.

Florencia helps lead workshops that address mental health topics, including providing resources to train community members on how to recognize mental health issues and coping skills. Florencia loves being a part of Well Connected Communities and hopes to see it continue to grow and make a positive impact on the community that she loves. She believes her involvement has not only helped her become a better leader, but a better person overall.

Pearl Daskam, Ubly, Michigan

Pearl Daskam is the co-founder of a project called “Meating” the Need for Our Village. The project is the result of a group of youth realizing a need in their community — a lack of protein options at the local food pantry. Although at 12 years old, the kids were too young to drive, did not have jobs, and did know how to grow food, they decided to start raising chickens and donating the meat to the food pantry.

Four years later, the project has grown significantly with guidance from community organizations, Michigan State University Extension Specialists, area farmers, egg and dairy producers, large and small businesses, and volunteers ranging in age from 8 to 80.

Pearl is the recipient of a 2019 Culture of Health Award. The awards are made possible with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of the Well Connected Communities initiative. Monica Hobbs Vinluan, Senior Program Officer for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation presented the awards.

Mariah Canton, California
True Leaders in Equity Ambassador

An 11-year member of California 4‑H, Mariah Canton is passionate about education and the positive effect 4‑H can have on communities. While traveling to Greece to work with refugees and teach English, Mariah and her team provided refugee teenagers with useful skills for navigating their new communities.

The resilient and vibrant refugee community inspired Mariah to get involved with the refugee community in her hometown, a startup group aiming to prepare refugees to enroll in local schools. The group helped refugees with homework, discuss their experiences in America, and learn to read and speak English. Through her involvement with the True Leaders in Equity Institute, Mariah has worked with county 4‑H staff to begin an initiative to reach out to local refugee families. She hopes this initiative provides a welcoming influence and positive learning environment through 4‑H for refugee youth.

Mayyadah Zagelow, Washington
True Leaders in Equity Ambassador

Mayyadah Zagelow’s 4‑H experiences connected her with youth from vastly different backgrounds and life experiences from her own. Mayyadah is an advocate who works for social change in 4‑H and her community. She is a senior in high school and very active in leadership and citizenship activities.

Passionate about LGBTQ+ rights and addressing racial inequities, Mayyadah is a founding member of a grassroots youth movement in Washington state called the Equity and Inclusion Teen Taskforce. Through this taskforce, Mayyadah is working with fellow 4‑H’ers to educate adults and teens about gender identities, expression, orientation and biological sex, as well as the challenges facing the LGBTQ+ community. Mayyadah hopes that through her efforts, we can create a world of inclusion for all 4‑H youth.

4‑H Science Matters Team, Johnson County, Kansas

4‑Hers involved in the Science Matters program not only participate in hands-on activities that broaden their perspectives about today’s science and agriculture, but they are also challenged to develop action plans and create long-term solutions for challenges facing their local communities.

Teens in Johnson County, Kansas, saw a big issue with the large amount of food waste in their community. In their county alone, they found that an estimated 162 million pounds of food is wasted annually. The team was inspired to create a policy to encourage school districts, businesses and homeowners to reduce food waste. They began with a local school and reached out to all 8th graders to push for food waste prevention measures within their school district.

After looking into additional ways to influence policy change on this issue, they worked with their Board of County Commissioners to proclaim May 23 as Johnson County Food Waste Prevention Day to help bring additional awareness to this important issue.

Clyde Van Dyke, Johnson City, New York

Youth in Action STEM Pillar Winner

Clyde Van Dyke was told at a young age that he likely would not graduate from high school or ever be successful. Facing many challenges, he didn’t have the support he needed and lacked the confidence to get out of his comfort zone. But when his friend brought him to the 4‑H Tech Wizards After-School program, his life changed in a drastic way.

In 4‑H, he learned to communicate, collaborate and be a leader and was introduced to a geospatial program that allows him to create maps that visualize data to help spark action in the community. He has created geospatial maps to visualize costs of attending 4‑H camp for low-income families, drug overdose deaths and the factors that may contribute to their increase, and more. Clyde is passionate about using technology to spark community change and plans to attend the State University of New York, Delhi, and pursue a career in digital forensics.

 Addy Battel, Cass City, Michigan

Youth in Action Agriculture Pillar Winner

Whether she is teaching youth with special needs to care for farm animals or fighting hunger in her hometown, Addy Battel demonstrates the leadership skills she gained in 4‑H through her passion for empowering youth to be the change they want to see. In middle school, Addy’s hometown of Cass City, Michigan, became a food desert. At just 12 years old, Addy worked with a team of fellow 4‑H’ers to create Meating the Need for Our Village, a program designed to fight hunger through agriculture. The program received grants and overwhelming community support to begin providing high-quality protein to local food pantries.

Since the program’s inception, more than 200 youth have been involved in the project by raising and donating animals to Meating the Need. Overall, the program has made a $5,000 impact on the community by providing 2,000 gallons of milk, 10,000 pounds of meat and 200 dozen eggs to families in need. Addy hopes to continue fighting hunger on a world-wide scale by attending Michigan State University and pursuing a degree in animal science.

Elisabeth Watkins, Linden, California

Youth in Action Healthy Living Pillar Winner

Elisabeth Watkins, a California 4‑H’er, became passionate about healthy living during elementary school. After facing health challenges that forced her stop competitive gymnastics, she found her purpose and her passion in 4‑H cooking projects. As she learned more about nutrition, living a healthy lifestyle and the impact of a balanced diet on physical and mental well-being, her interest in cooking and food production developed into life-changing opportunities and a path for her future career.

From chairing the California State Fair 4‑H Cooking Throwdown, to creating a new cooking competition in her community, to mentoring future cooking project leaders, to launching her platform Farm Girl Chef, Elisabeth has been an advocate for agriculture, cooking and good food. Elisabeth will further her education at the University of Nevada, Reno and dreams of one day hosting her own farm-to-table cooking show.

Mason McClintock, Alma, Georgia

Youth in Action Civic Engagement Pillar Winner

From his retro sense of style to his effervescent personality, Mason McClintock always felt different from others his age. Then, 4‑H came into the picture and became an outlet for him to be himself, feel encouraged by his peers and adults and find the belonging he so desperately desired.

Through the program, he developed strong leadership and communication skills, and is using those to make a difference in his small, rural hometown where he saw an opportunity to help youth in his community explore new careers and expand their goals for the future. His program, the Alma Entrepreneur Tour, teaches youth helpful business and entrepreneurial principles while connecting youth with local entrepreneurs to expose them to new fields. From financial institutions and inns to department stores and agricultural operations, Mason has exposed more than 50 youth to a variety of new fields to pursue. Upon graduating from high school, Mason plans to pursue a career in music and study business, finance and Spanish at the University of Georgia.

Jacob Shuman, Ohio

Youth in Action Agriculture Pillar Winner

Jacob Shuman became an advocate for bees through Ohio State University Cooperative Extension after finding out that Ross County was one of the unhealthiest counties in Ohio.  In response to these findings, he developed Teens Educating Adults and Children about Honey Bees (TEACH B) program. Through the TEACH B program, Shuman leads live bee education, demonstrations and lessons on the importance of bees to agriculture and the economy. He is an Ohio State ambassador and the recipient of the National 4‑H Council Merck Youth Agriculture Advocacy Award, and he has the honor of being recognized by Ohio Senator Bob Peterson for his work in environmental sciences. The 2016 4‑H Youth in Action Agriculture Pillar Winner, Jacob is now studying at the Ohio State University – Agriculture Technical Institute in Wooster, OH, specializing in Extension Education with a minor in entomology. Jacob is furthering his TEACH B working with honey bees as a research assistant and is the current president of the Ohio State University – ATI Bee Club.  

Decklan Thomas, West Virginia

Following the footsteps of three generations of his family in the trucking industry, Decklan, a high schooler in West Virginia, planned on becoming a diesel mechanic. The field was appealing not only because of family tradition, but also because it allowed him to do something he liked: identifying problems and fixing them. Through his local 4‑H club, he was introduced to computer science.

Decklan didn’t realize he was coding at first—it just felt like solving a puzzle on the computer. As he began to code more, he quickly saw the parallels between the skills needed to be a mechanic and the computer science he was learning at 4‑H and now sees a range of possibilities for his future, including his first interest, diesel mechanic. Now, as a 4‑H teen computer science ambassador, Decklan helps other youth learn computer science, creating opportunities for himself and others in his community.