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2021-2022 Spokane County Scholarship Recipients

Posted by webadmin | July 29, 2022

Haley Neumiller

Malina Strong Memorial Scholarship

 

haley neumillerMy name is Haley Neumiller, and I am a proud graduating 4-H’er from the Buckles & Bling 4-H club. This year completes my seventh year involved in the Spokane County 4-H program. I have participated in and learned from several projects throughout my 4-H journey including horse, market hog, breeding gilt, market steer, and Know Your Government. Through these projects, I have learned countless lessons and gained many friends and mentors along the way.

My main project in 4-H has been the horse project. I have had several horses within the past seven years including my heart horse, Hank, and my green horse project, Chili. I have participated in almost all of the camps, shows, and educational events in the past few years. Some of my favorite 4-H memories were from horse camps and shows, the Working Ranch Horse tour of Washington event, and the national 4-H conference I attended in 2019!

In my market project, I have raised and sold three hogs and two steers. I currently have two more hogs this year that I will sell at the Clayton Community Fair and Spokane Interstate Fair this Summer. In February, I farrowed out my own litter of piglets for the first time and successfully sold them to other 4-H’ers for their Summer projects! I am very thankful for the ability to be involved in these projects as my profits are saving up to help pay for college next year.

One of the lessons I am most thankful to 4-H for teaching me is how to seek ways to serve others in my community. In addition to service, I have learned public speaking skills, record and finance tracking skills, and have gained knowledge about the state and national governments through Know Your Government. I have no doubts that these lessons and skills will help me succeed in college and beyond.

This Fall, I will be attending the University of Washington and studying within the Pre-Admitted College of Engineering Program. My goal is to major in bioengineering and either continue into a career in a health care setting or into medical research.

4-H has truly provided me with the experiences, lessons, and mentors that have helped shape me into who I am now. I am beyond thankful for the years I have had in 4-H, and for all that I have learned. I have made friends, grew friendships, gained mentors, and found ways to make a difference in my community. Thank you for selecting me as the recipient of the 2022 Malina Strong Memorial Scholarship.


Riley Rocholl

High School Graduate Scholarship

riley rocholl

Hello! My name is Riley Rocholl, and I am a part of the Buckles n’ Bling 4-H club. I am a senior in 4-H, and I just graduated from high school in June. I attended Mead High School and did part time running-start through Spokane Falls Community College. Over the last five years, my main focus has been on the horse project. I have completed the project each year along with a record book for my horse Aurora. I have also participated in many 4-H events over the years such as horse shows, tack swap, educational competitions, and one of my favorite events; the 4-H trail ride at Riverside state Park.

When I first joined 4-H, I had no idea what the 4-H pledge or motto was; however, during my time in 4-H I have learned to understand as well as embrace all parts of the pledge and motto. The first part of the pledge talks about pledging my head to clearer thinking. I feel that this is one area of 4-H that has impacted me the most. When I first joined 4-H, I was a rather shy kid with an exceptionally large fear of public speaking. While I would still not consider myself to be a strong public speaker, I have certainly come a long way in the last few years. Participating in events such as impromptu and presentations at the county and club level has allowed me the opportunity to put together presentations and then speak about them in front of judges and members of my club. Putting together a presentation made me use clear thinking when formatting and reciting my information, and the public speaking aspect allowed me to gain confidence when it comes to presenting or speaking in front of groups of people. Not only has this helped me in 4-H, but it has also helped me with giving presentations at school.

The next part of the 4-H pledge talks about pledging my heart to greater loyalty. Through 4-H, I have met many amazing people. I have created several loyal friendships, one of those being with my best friend, Haley, as well as the rest of the Neumiller family. I have also become loyal to my club and the people in it. I have been a part of Buckles n’ Bling since it was started, and I have gotten to know the kids in my club better and better over the last few years. I have participated in events such as cutting and sewing feed bags into handheld reusable shopping bags that my club sold. I have also helped at stall filling events where we filled stalls with shavings at the Spokane County Fairgrounds before an Arabian show to raise some money for the club.

The third part of the pledge talks about pledging my hands to larger service. This is another area where 4-H has heavily impacted my life and allowed me to provide better living for others. It has created several opportunities for me to do community service on a club and county level in addition to being more aware and involved in my community outside of 4-H. Over the years I have volunteered several times at the tree of sharing booth in the Northtown Mall around Christmas time. I have also volunteered at the 4-H tack swap on consignment day to help check in items and get them to their assigned tables or areas. My club has also put on food and clothing drives that I have helped with. In terms of community service outside of 4-H I have stacked hay for an injured neighbor several times, and I have helped exercise horses for a family friend when she was going through a loss.

When it comes to the 4-H motto “to make the best better” I have shown this in a variety of ways. First, I have pushed myself to try and learn more about topics that I already know some information about. For example, I compete in three-day eventing with my horse, but I still did extensive research about it to try and learn new information for my club presentation. I will also try to find topics to research that I do not know much about. For these topics I researched horses’ teeth and hoof abscesses so that I could learn more about them in an attempt to expand my knowledge. I also want to share the knowledge that I have with others to expand their knowledge as well. This is part of the reason that most of my presentations have been horse related because I have a lot of horse project kids in my club, and I want to teach them more about how to care for their horses. I also try to make the best better by taking lessons with a trainer from time to time. I feel that even if my horse is performing well, it is good to get help from other people who can share their knowledge and perspectives with me so that I can be a better rider for my horse and other horses that I may ride.

Although my time as a 4-Her will be coming to an end soon, I will still carry with me the experiences and lessons that Spokane County 4-H has taught me over the last five years into the next chapters of my life. I applied to several colleges for the fall of 2022 including Washington State University, Montana State University, and Utah State University which were my top three choices. It has been my lifelong dream to become a veterinarian since I was in the second grade, so I decided that Washington State University would be the best college for me to achieve this goal. I am proud to say that I will be attending WSU in the fall of 2022 as a member of the Honors College to pursue a degree in Animal Sciences. I hope to then take that degree with me to Veterinary School and be able to serve the animals and their owners in my community once again. As a veterinarian I would hope to give back to my local 4-H community through education or volunteering my time.


Gracelyn Robinson

High School Graduate Scholarship

 

4-H is more than just farm animals and projects for the fair, it’s a second family. I was introduced to it when I first went to the fair, I think I was about 6 years old and of course I thought it was just fair projects and horses, then I generalized it more and decided all farm animals equaled 4-H. A few years down the road, my sister’s best friend joined when her mom, my mentor these past 4 years, started her involvement. At the time I wasn’t too interested or really old enough to understand it. When my sister’s friend, Rory, sadly passed away in 2015 my sister was asked to honor her legacy and complete a year of YA-4H!. My sister decided that 4-H wasn’t her thing but Jennifer, my mentor, still stayed close to my family. Before my freshman year she reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in trying it out, my sister and I are different enough that Jen guessed I might like it, surprise, she was right as always. Within my first meeting I knew this was something that would mean a lot.

The group Jen assembled melted together perfectly, there was no awkward adjustment, we were immediately friends. After the first few meetings, talking over our goals for the year and projected outreach over the next few years the message proposed hit me deep. Teaching kids how to be healthier, something I’m passionate about. A big thing that drew me in to stay was that we weren’t promoting toxic diet culture, just making better choices. Being able to tell kids “Sodas are okay but they aren’t the best” felt so much nicer than what I was told as a kid, “soda is bad, never drink it, don’t even smell it because it’ll be too tempting.”

Over the last 4 years I’ve learned so much from these kids. They are always excited to see us, the fun big kids who teach them fun lessons, and sometimes they don’t even realize they are learning. Watching their faces light up when we walk in, when they answer questions right, when I congratulate them so enthusiastically about some health-related choice they made. It fills my heart to know that I’m impacting about 250 kids a year with happy memories, fun, and good food. But they also taught me a lot, they tested my patience and pushed all my buttons and didn’t want to do what was planned, and at the end of the day I was always able to walk away with a smile and a new coping skill for stress.


Ainsley Carpenter

High School Graduate Scholarship (2021 Recipient)

 

My 4-H story starts when I was 5 years old. I lived in Leavenworth, Kansas, and was a rabbit-loving gal. I had two rabbits and two domesticated rats. These animals ended up being my first projects within 4-H. Starting as a Cloverbud, I remember fun activities, cool patches to receive, and membership like none other. Throughout my travels and throughout the places I lived, I found 4-H and leadership helped me thrive to be a public speaker and a good leader. When I moved to Louisiana a couple of years later, my school had 4-H classes, since 4-H was part of the school system. I was secretary of my chapter and loved the members that I grew close to. After moving to Washington state in 2016 I knew that I wanted to join a 4-H club as soon as possible. Luckily there was one with many of my classmates, so I joined. After that day I worked hard to complete my growing number of 4-H projects, including rabbits, sheep, chickens, small animals, reptiles, goats, horses, steers, hogs, and alpacas. I became a show kid through 4-H and enjoyed sharing my knowledge of animals with the public.

Once I was a little older I realized that I could now participate in the leadership side of 4-H. I started just as President of my club, then moved on to county, then state positions for Washington 4-H. Working with the state team was amazing, but I loved my county even more. Through Spokane County 4-H I worked with Jennifer Fees through YA4-H!, a part of 4-H that teaches the youth around Spokane County about healthy living. This provided me with the experience of teaching and public speaking. Throughout my time with Spokane County 4-H I helped with many Cloverbud Carnivals, went on several national trips representing Spokane, and participated in Tech Changemakers, and Know Your Government programs. I also attended many fairs and helped with the booths that were there.

I love 4-H more than anything and now I am working with it nationally on the National 4-H Council. This past spring and summer I worked in Washington DC for the National 4-H Conference and 4-H Citizenship Washington Focus. I am returning to DC in the spring of 2023 to help with the National Conference again. I also directly communicate with the WSU Extension Office in Pullman, WA on the Washington State University campus. I am studying Zoology at WSU right now and I am representing 4-H as a Senator of the Associate Students of WSU. 4-H has taught me so much and has let me have the amazing experiences that built me to who I am today. I am thoroughly excited to see where 4-H takes me next. Thank you so much for this scholarship.


Alayna Boyd

High School Graduate Scholarship

 

4-H changed my life. It made me realize how much I love kids and how much they mean to me and our future. Working as a YA4-H! (Youth Advocate for Health) teen teacher also helped me learn how to teach and has inspired me to become a teacher myself. 4-H not only helped me grow as an individual, but it helped me meet some incredible people and do incredible things. These things include helping our community slow the increase of drug misuse and abuse, along with attending the 4-H Healthy Living Summit in Washington, D.C. and learning about different cultures and parts of the country.

I went 15 years without knowing what 4-H was, but now that I know I will never leave. 4-H is rooted in the beliefs and morals that I have. I have grown so much as an individual because of 4-H, and without it I would still be so ignorant and lost. In 2020, I received an email from my high school counselor letting me know that 4-H had this super cool opportunity to help make a difference in our community. I was able to develop a plan to help the Spokane, Washington community by raising money for Volunteers of America, to help homeless people struggling with addiction through a process called replacement fixation. This helped my head and my heart in so many ways, from giving me a new perspective of the world, and helped me gain more empathy for others.

I have become rooted in the saying, “To make the best better” because it is so powerful. I want to be what 4-H lives for, which is to be a change agent in our community. Through the influence of 4-H has had on me, I have been more intentional with my service, and I have been more respectful because 4-H has opened my eyes to a new perspective of the world. To continue, 4-H is where I place my loyalty. I am all in, because the people are so respectful and loving towards me and I strive to be just like them. I have learned from the National 4-H Healthy Living Summit that it only takes 5 minutes to make a difference in someone’s life so we should make our time worthwhile. To conclude, I would like to reiterate that because of 4-H I have become a better person. I have started to make healthier choices, and I have been able to help out so many people from the simple acts of kindness I give out every day.