With education on the move to a variety of new mediums, youth leadership training and hands-on experience are still a constant in the curricula of Delaware 4-H. From the time a child enters the Delaware 4-H program, opportunities to lead are at every turn. Club officer positions, ranging from reporter to president and everything in between, expose youth to the importance of leadership from an early stage. Many positions at the club level serve as springboards for growth at the county and state level, providing even more opportunities for learning and exposure.

Through project work, youth are able not only to experience firsthand leadership opportunities but share learned knowledge by completing a project book and having work recorded. The connection that Delaware 4-H makes between youth actually doing the work and then sharing the work is a hallmark of the curriculum. While Delaware 4-H prides itself in traditional leadership opportunities for youth through club, county or state offices, the interaction between youth themselves and the importance of enabling peer-to-peer growth is critical to the mastery which 4-H promotes as an essential element.

Studies show that youth learn and retain a tremendous amount from learning through peer-to-peer interaction. 4-H offers leadership opportunities that connect and enable youth to build confidence and trust from day camp counselor roles to week-long, overnight leadership positions. Through day and week-long interactions, where trained 4-H youth serve in leadership roles critical to the safety and success of a camp, counselors serve as leaders to scores of campers who rely on their guidance. Be it by teaching a class or setting the example by leading with respect for all attendees, the unique way in which Delaware 4-H places trained youth in positions of leadership in a camp setting has given generations of participants valuable skills which have benefitted them throughout their lives. Counselor positions at a Delaware 4-H camp are valued because of the constant meaningful interaction that takes place between the counselors in leadership and the campers in attendance.    

The breadth and depth of leadership opportunities youth are provided through Delaware 4-H, along with the importance placed on recognition, is key to our youth's success. Recognition is earned and the confidence it instills in a child is important. It is for this reason that 4-H places such a high premium on exposing young leaders to national trainings and conferences.

With millions of 4-H members across the country and annual gatherings of 4-H youth where training is placed at the center of the experience, Delaware 4-H members have a long history of learning while doing at national leadership summits, National 4-H Conference and National 4-H Congress — just to name a few.

The importance staff and professionals place in allowing youth leadership opportunities will continue to be a distinction that separates Delaware 4-H from other youth development organizations. It is for this reason among so many that parents and youth continue to choose Delaware 4-H as a youth development program worthy of their time and trust.