“I’ve been involved with 4-H ever since I was about 12, and my brother and sisters were as well,” he says. “My first project was a dairy heifer calf, and I didn’t win for a couple of years; as a matter of fact, I never raised a grand champion heifer. But sometimes you learn an awful lot even though you aren’t first. Everybody can’t be first every time, and I think that’s an important lesson we all have to learn.

“As a 4-H leader, one of the most difficult challenges that we face is to convince the parents that it’s the student who’s really the project—not the calf or the pig or lamb or bees or garden. 4-H is about developing leadership and strong community responsibilities in children.”

Brosius’ dedication to 4-H and its “real” purpose isn’t unusual. As the Cooperative Extension System’s educational program for young people aged 8 to 18, the program pulls together the efforts of youth, volunteer leaders, state land-grant universities, state and local governments, 4-H foundations, and the USDA Cooperative State Research, Educational, and Extension Service.

State program leader Marilyn Corbin directs Pennsylvania 4-H as it looks to maintain traditions while meeting the needs of today's rural, urban, and suburban youth.

At 100 years old, 4-H is one of the nation’s oldest and largest youth organizations, with more than 6.8 million members, more than 45 million alumni, and more than 610,595 youth and adult volunteers. Universally recognized by its four-leaf clover emblem, the 4-H umbrella covers organized clubs, school-enrichment groups, special interest groups, international exchange programs, individual study programs, camps, school-age child care programs, and instructional television programs.

Participants can choose from more than 110 program areas, including community service, communications, consumer and family sciences, environmental education, earth sciences, healthy lifestyle education, leadership, plants and animals, and science and technology. 4-H serves youth from all ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds, and from rural, suburban, and urban communities, helping them develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will enable them to become productive and contributing members of society.

Marilyn Corbin, who directs the college’s children, youth, and families programs, says 4-H began as a demonstration model to encourage farmers to adopt the new techniques being developed by land-grant universities.

“An Ohio school superintendent who had been reared on a farm and had taught in rural schools tried out his idea of boys’ and girls’ experimental farming clubs on students and teachers in 1901,” she says. “It was a way to help parents accept new ways of farming—new ways of planting corn seeds or fertilizing crops—by getting the kids to demonstrate best practices of genetics and nutrition. If the kids were excited and successful with their test plots, then it became a teachable moment to get the parents involved.”

The idea caught on in several surrounding states, as Boys and Girls Clubs formed and were named after commodities (the Corn Club) or their neighborhoods (the Kennett Square Neighborhood Club). While it’s unclear which state can claim the very first formal 4-H program, several Pennsylvanians were among the pioneers.

“In 1912, Charles McBride, the county extension agent in Mercer County, organized the first corn-growing contest,” Corbin says. “There were 15 participants—14 boys and one girl. The girl, Arlie Fill, won the contest. She beat all those boys, and that was a nice way for 4-H to begin in Pennsylvania.”

The 4-H idea caught on immediately. Clubs for many livestock species and crops were formed, and by 1912 almost 100,000 youth were enrolled. In 1914, the U.S. Congress established federal funding for cooperative extension and 4-H programs; more extension agents were hired and more clubs formed.

Of course, for the young participants, there was much more growing than the corn. “Many older alumni who were in 4-H 40 or 50 years ago tell how they met their spouses through 4-H,” Corbin says. “They were teenagers working together on exhibits or community projects, and they met one another through that experience. To this day they’re still married, and their grandchildren are 4-H’ers. It’s really great to see; their whole family has had that 4-H experience over time.”

During World War I, 4-H fervor contributed to the war effort with food production and conservation, canning demonstrations, and other efforts, as the numbers swelled to 169,000 youth in 4-H by 1918. Through field demonstrations, farm tours, genetic seed selection, and tilling practices, people could see the benefits and determine best practices. The excitement of competition grew, and more youth wanted to get involved—it was fun, it helped improve farm production, and it was a valuable social outlet in rural America.

By the 1920s, national events for 4-H’ers brought youth together to learn leadership skills, parliamentary procedure, and consumer sciences (or home economics). Those early years also saw the growth of 4-H summer camps, and in 1922, USDA granted charters to local clubs in recognition of their participation. In 1924, the 4-H Club name and clover were patented as the program’s emblem.

“We were very much rural up through World War II, but, of course, the nation was very rural then, too,” says Corbin. “Membership rose to 1.5 million by 1942, and once again 4-H’ers made a big contribution to the war effort by growing crops, collecting scrap metal, and providing a lot of leadership when their fathers were away in the war.”

After World War II and through the 1950s, 4-H continued its expansion nationwide, with special-interest groups becoming one of the fastest-growing formats. Citizenship and emphasis in science in 4-H projects received special post-war and Cold War attention, and 4-H international exchange programs moved rapidly to countries around the world. The International Farm Youth Exchange Program, founded in 1948, expanded to 23 countries in Asia, Europe, and Latin America between 1944 and 1953.

In the 1960s, a commission from Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty directed all federal programs to reach out to the disadvantaged poor. The new charge wasn’t new for 4-H; about one-third of all 4-H members already came from such families. Congress increased appropriations for 4-H urban and community development programs. Minority participation in the annual National 4-H Conference began in this period, adding an urban aspect to 4-H’s rural- and agriculture-focused activities. In 1965, the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy and its 4-H subcommittee agreed on a policy to encourage participation of minorities in national 4-H events.

“Today, every state has a 4-H program, and half of our membership is in urban areas,” Corbin says. “It’s still pretty much half-and-half boys and girls, but as we move into more flexible programming, where you don’t need a farm animal, we’ve been able to reach out to the urban setting. There are projects for kids who have pets, but there are also projects relating to skills like woodworking or electricity. Gardening projects have continued over the decades, and they’re still very popular.

“I was working with a group of young people last summer who created a garden in the back lot of a church. These young boys had a pretty tough home life, but they went to the church lot every day and they grew the best garden you’ve ever seen. They had a purpose, and it gave them something special to do. At the end of the season, they had a wonderful assortment of vegetables to take home to their families. They learned cooperation, teamwork, good decision making, and even entreprenuership—they grew enough that they could sell some of their garden products, and they had to figure out how they could get their tomatoes to market. It’s amazing what you can learn in one 4-H project.”

The environment in which young people do 4-H projects has changed over the years, and is continuing to change. “It’s not just the club that meets once a week in someone’s home or community center,” Corbin says. “It might be an after-school setting, summer camps, it might be a Saturday morning club that meets once a week. 4-H is evolving to fit the needs of the local community—as society has changed, so has 4-H.”

That evolution is taking place in many places and forms. In Wayne County, youth development and 4-H agent Joyce Malicky’s safety camp helps young people learn skills necessary for survival in an environment with complex threats. The theme of the camp is “Kids, Animals, and Equipment—Keep Them Safe.”

“Kids in Wayne and Susquehanna Counties live in semi-rural communities with the benefit of wide-open spaces just beyond their doorsteps,” Malicky says. “As urban areas extend into rural, farms cease operations, and nonfarm families move to land that was recently farmed, kids are being affected. Whether they live in town or on farms, they’re exposed to all-terrain vehicles, firearms, and wild animals. Our safety camp makes them aware of potential hazards and teaches good decision making.”

At the camp, more than 100 eight- to twelve-year-olds and their parents get a one-day introduction to rural living safety issues, including handling animals and wildlife babies, first-on-the-scene safety, firearms safety, pesticide safety, water and pond safety, and more. Representatives of Wayne County 4-H and the state Department of Health conducted the training.

“Shortly after the camp, one youngster got to practice an important skill he learned as a result of the program,” Malicky says. “There was a kitchen fire in his home and he was able to use the fire extinguisher to put it out, something his mom didn’t know how to use. It was an unfortunate incident, but one that could have been much more devastating had he not known how to use the extinguisher.”

The mushroom and horticulture industries of Chester County, which rely on Mexican migrant labor, face a different need: helping a growing population of Mexican youth assimilate into American culture in a changing suburban community. Laurie Sicko-Szoke, youth development and 4-H agent and coordinator, responded with the 4-H Creative Arts Program in Self-Esteem Development.

“In Mexico, youth are recognized as adults at 15 years old,” Sicko-Szoke says. “Assimilating these young people into the community is a culturally sensitive issue, and we recognized the need to create education partnerships and service collaborations that nurture these migrant youth and families. We’re able to develop strong individuals and to foster community and individual esteem by recognizing families who maintain their cultural practices and traditions.”

Now entering its fifth year, the program brings together 4-H staff, 4-H alumni from Mexico, Chester County Migrant Education teachers, and local artists to present fifth-grade migrant students with classic 4-H activities that have a culturally relevant spin. Photography, embryology, 4-H “Friendship Bracelets,” and a 4-H Fair project are blended with armadillo and animal mask construction, language and literacy exercises fostering character education, and music sessions with “Modern Mayan Productions.” The program was featured at the recent East Coast Migrant Stream Forum in Philadelphia and at the National Migrant Education Program in Florida.

Camping, a 4-H staple for decades, continues in many counties across the state, but agents are updating these programs for families with busier lifestyles and greater needs. In Montgomery County, a series of camping sessions focused on 4-H Leisure Education/Outdoor Living Programs. “Our camping programs and shooting sports programs give kids the opportunity to make constructive use of their leisure time, as well as teaching them important life skills,” says extension agent Helaine Brown. “We had 45 children at our five-day day camp at the 4-H center, and some of our day camp programs were adapted to meet the needs of kids with attention-deficit disorder and other behavior problems.”

Thanks to his success at the day camps, one ADHD-afflicted child was able to attend an overnight 4-H camp successfully. And Montgomery County sent several teams to shooting-sport competitions at State 4-H Achievement Days, and each team or individual placed first in the state in their category. One member was chosen to participate in the National 4-H Archery contest, and placed among the top 10 in the nation. And the benefits to the camp’s counselors, Brown says, are just as important as those reaped by attendees.

“The leadership skills that the counselors develop are a big part of our reason for camping,” she says. “A mentor of mine—a senior agent who trained me when I started as a 4-H counselor—called camping an ‘outdoor laboratory for leadership development,’ and that’s stuck with me for 26 years. Camp is an activity that teaches children life skills, and that’s why we feel it’s such a priority.”