For the first time ever, Fannin County students had the opportunity to compete in a county-wide 4-H Project Achievement competition.
One hundred and forty fourth and fifth grade students from Blue Ridge Elementary, East Fannin Elementary, West Fannin Elementary and homeschooled children competed against their peers in 60 categories for a chance to present their project in the district competition.
Of those 140, 75 went on to compete against eight other counties in the district-wide competition.
Categories included topics from agriculture to sports.
Elementary students compete at the Clover Leaf level, which is made up of fourth through sixth grade students.
For the project, 4-H’ers choose a project area of interest, research the topic, then write and present an oral and visual presentation to others.
Typically, 4-H’ers present to a judge and are scored immediately following; however, this year, projects were presented to a camera and then judged.
The district competition follows similar protocol.
“Project Achievement is one of four core programmatic areas for 4-H with the overarching purpose being to develop soft skills in youth, particularly where it comes to communication,” Fannin County University of Georgia (UGA) Extension Coordinator and county 4-H Department Head Ashley Hoppers said. “So obviously, we want these young people to be well adjusted by the time they get into high school and college and be able to communicate efficiently, and we’ve determined that the best place to start is on this Clover Leaf level.
“It’s all about encouraging them to try something that’s naturally uncomfortable for somebody, and for an elementary school child that is a tremendous undertaking in itself, and then being able to organize your thoughts in a way such as writing a speech is a tremendous undertaking, and by building these skill sets at such an early age, we hope that they can be more competitive in the workforce and just in their every day lives because communication is key. I don’t care how smart you are, if you can’t explain to me your experiment that you did in STEM class, then we’re missing a piece to that puzzle.”
She explained that while in a CTAE meeting with the Fannin County School System, the idea of pursuing this project was planted.
Crediting Rachel Wasserman, UGA Extension 4-H Youth AmeriCorp State Member and former 4-H’er, for making the projects a reality, Hoppers said, “She’s the boots on the ground, the one working in the classroom, and without her willingness to try something of this scale, it wouldn’t have even happened.”
Wasserman explained that she meets with the students monthly and presented the project to the students in January.
“The teacher support was really key because a lot of teachers gave them extra time, when they had free time in school, to work on their projects and stuff like that,” Wasserman said.
In explaining the county’s 4-H program, Hoppers said, “It is a partnership with the University of Georgia and local, county government, and in this case, a partnership with the school system.”
She went on to thank teachers, principals and the school system as a whole for making the project possible and added that she hopes to further build the program in the future.
Although the county’s 4-H Project Achievement was just offered to the elementary students this year, Hoppers and Wasserman noted that middle and high school students can participate in 4-H, which can open many doors for a promising future.
“Right now it is an ocean of emotions because it’s been a lot of work,” Hoppers said of the competition. “And to see the kids in front of their peers being acknowledged is just incredibly rewarding.”
Wasserman agreed that seeing the students’ efforts has been a highlight.
“I go into the classroom and we’ll do a project or a science lesson, and that’s fun to see them grow just within the 45, 50 minutes of class, but to have seen some of these students who in January were like, ‘I’m not doing that. I won’t speak in front of people.’ And then today, you know, two of them won first place. That was just amazing to see,” Wasserman said.