Georgia 4-H Project Achievement, a yearly public speaking competition, empowers young people with skills for a lifetime. Students choose a project area of interest, research the topic, write a speech, and present their project.

Local 4-H’ers develop leadership, creativity, public speaking, record keeping and other skills. 

As students become older, a record-keeping component that promotes independent thinking, research and implementation is added. 

Cloverleaf 4-H’ers (fourth-sixth graders), begin competition in their school or county and advance to the district level. 

Junior and Senior competitions (seventh-12th grade) encourage youth to become more involved in their project areas and Seniors can even advance to the state and national levels. 

After selecting a project area, youth in seventh to12th grade must then complete a portfolio. This two-page document highlights a 4-H’ers work over the last 12 months. 

A portfolio is broken down into different sections including main project work, sharing and helping, leadership activities, community service, other activities, and supporting materials. 

The portfolio allows youth to showcase all their activities in different clubs and organizations. After the portfolios are submitted, they are judged by University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Staff from other districts.

Students then create a presentation about a topic related to their project area. For example, if a student choses sports as his or her project area, then the presentation can be about any topic related to sports.

Presentations are presented using posters and props to a panel of judges. The length of the presentation is generally eight to ten minutes. Some projects do not require a presentation. 

There are several cooking projects that require a healthy prepared dish or snack. There are also performing arts projects which require a performance like singing, dancing, or playing a musical instrument. 

The county level competition for Cloverleaf 4-H’ers will be held on Feb. 12. Portfolios for Junior and Senior 4-H’ers are due to the Extension 4-H Office by Feb. 1. 

Youth interested in participating in Project Achievement can register by emailing Heather Haines at heather.haines@uga.edu. 

For more information on local activities and how to get involved in Forsyth County 4-H this year, contact the Forsyth County Extension Office. In Forsyth County, 4-H is supported by The University of Georgia, Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, Forsyth County Board of Education, and United Way of Forsyth County.  

For more information on the 4-H Program, call the Forsyth County Extension Office at 770-887-2418 or send an email to uge1117@uga.edu.