The Louisiana 4-H Citizenship Board met up recently for the WeLead conference in Alexandria.
Louisiana 4-H leadership boards give 4-Hers the opportunity to develop leadership, social, emotional and character skills. The Citizenship board is designed to help students explore citizenship and cultural awareness on local, state and national levels and to build a sense of civic engagement as well.
They attend state 4-H Youth Board meetings and attend, help plan and conduct service-learning projects and educational experiences.
We received this report from Malory Segura of Iberia Parish, who is the board's reporter/photographer. She also provided us with photos from the event, which you can see by scrolling down.
To start off the conference, the Citizenship board did many team building activities and set the ground rules that were chosen by the board members. The citizenship and other boards had a seminar led by Kent Julian. Mr. Julian gave three amazing seminars about discovering the Hero within You through his time with the boards.
To end the night the Citizenship board had their own guest speakers. Louisiana spirit spoke to the board about how to cope with stress and other mental health in times of crisis like a natural disaster. The Board made personally coping wheels . Then the Central Louisiana Human service district spoke to the board about maintaining positive mental health and substance & addictive disorders. The CLHSD gave each board member a bag with many booklets about mental health and different types of substance & addictive disorders.
Thursday July 15, 2021 was when the Citizenship board got hard to work planning for the upcoming 4-H year. But before they can start,the Citizenship board officer candidates Presented a breathing exercise for all state boards after breakfast.
Board members voted on their new officers to represent them.
Jaren St.Clair of St. Landry Parish is the CItizenship Board president. Following him in order is Travis Rachal (Natchitoches Parish) as vice president, Allie Devillier (St. Landry Parish) as secretary, Malory Segura (Iberia Parish) as reporter/photographer, Isaac Temple (Jeff Davis Parish) as event coordinator, Jewel Bird (Bossier Parish) as civic engagement head chairman and Autumn Herring (Livingston Parish) as service- learning head chairman.
The newly elected officers gathered for a small officer training session. After officer training, President St.Clair called the first official meeting of the Louisiana State Citizenship Board to order the afternoon of July 15. The board Announced the committees.
The service-learning committee is as standing Autumn Herring as Head Chairman, Chloe Martin (St. Mary Parish), Joy So (Winn Parish) and Aubrie Everett (Caddo Parish). Their committee mentor is Kim Deville.
The Event Planning committee is as standing Isaac Temple (Jeff Davis Parish) Head chairman, Travis Rachal (Natchitoches Parish) as co-chairman, Mattie Miller (Winn Parish), Kristin Richard (Lafourche Parish), and Oliva Busha (Winn Parish). Their committee mentor is Brittany Zaubreker.
The Civic engagement committee is as standing Jewel Bird (Bossier Parish) head chairman, Malory Segura (Iberia Parish), Jazlyn and Jadyn Arrington (Tensas Parish), Gracie Thigpen (Washington Parish) and Mikayla Barletto (Iberia Parish). Their committee mentor is Xavier Bell.
The Fundraising committee is as standing Allie Devillier (St. Landry Parish) is head chairman, Their committee Mentor is Betsy Crigler.
The board also discussed plans for 4-H Day with the Tigers & Tailgate party and location for the fall board meeting.
The board was able to take a break from work and enjoy a throwback Thursday theme dance party with the other state boards.
The Citizenship Board was called back to session on July 16. The committees work to plan activities to focus on for the year or next few months. Reporter Segura challenged the board to spend the week of july 18-23 talking or texting a board member they may not have talked to the past three days.
To wrap up the WeLead Conference all the state boards gathered one last time to eat lunch with Louisiana public figures like the Speaker of the House Clay Schexnayder. The Citizenship Board took one last picture before the Conference ended that afternoon.
Here are some pictures from the event:
