Clover Kids: Livestock show and scholarships

By Kate Pittack/ Extension 4-H Agent

With entries for the Henderson County Livestock Show being due this last week, it made me reflect on all of the entries and time and hard work I put into my projects which were exhibited at the Antelope County Fair in Northeast Nebraska. I grew up on a small farm in a pretty rural part of my county. The traffic on our dusty gravel road consisted of the mailman & a handful of farmers who had land nearby. While taking care of 280 sheep was a year-round task, my summers especially involved caring for and preparing my market lambs and breeding ewes for county and state fair.

The steel basketball hoop pole set in concrete served as the “wash rack.” It was just far enough out of my mom’s actual yard to keep the blue dawn we used to wash our sheep with from killing the “nice grass.” The out-of-use metal swing set served as the “drying and staging” area. From there, our wooden blocking stand was set up in the second stall of our two car garage.

While it might not seem like this scenario I’ve described has much to do with college and scholarships, it actually has some pretty close ties. Sheep were my “main” 4-H project during my 10 years in the program. During that time, I kept records that detailed things specific to my sheep and also all of the community service and leadership related activities I participated in. When I was a senior in high school all of this information I had kept track of came in pretty handy when I started applying for scholarships for college.

Texas 4-H specifically, awards approximately 225 scholarships for students statewide. All youth need to apply is: 4-H experience, financial need and their academic record. Amounts of the scholarships awarded range from $1,000 to $20,000. The important part of these scholarships is keeping up a yearly 4-H record book that tracks projects, community service and leadership. This year we had a handful of youth apply for the state scholarships. While we are still waiting to hear who is moving on to the next round, we are hopeful to have some move on to the “interviews.”

If you are in 4-H but have never done a record book, it’s not too late to start! We have forms available through our office to help you get started. On the flip side, if you aren’t involved in 4-H, but would like to be, we accept enrollments year round. Just contact me for more information.

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Kate Pittack is the Henderson County Extension Agent – 4-H & Youth Development for Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. Contact her at: [email protected] & visit our webpage at http://henderson.agrilife.org