Shanna Jacobsen
Spokane County 4-H Post Secondary
“I look back on my years in 4-H with gratitude and good memories. After I graduated from high school, I also ended my years as a 4-H member. But I have not forgotten my 4-H experiences and more importantly my 4-H friends and mentors. I recall that I joined 4-H to make friends and to learn new things. As a young girl, I really had no clue what I could gain from being a 4-H member. Yes, I made many new friends and had a ton of great experiences with club meetings, horse shows, educational events and fairs. But 4-H was much more than that to me. While I was having fun and learning horsemanship skills, I was also learning really valuable life skills.
When I was young, I was very shy and did not like to talk in front of people. My 4-H leaders always encouraged me to do the best I could. I never felt like I was forced to speak up or do things that I was nervous about doing like public presentations. But I always got the encouragement and the coaching as I grew, to build my confidence and my ability to overcome my shyness. By doing horse bowl, hippology, club activities and community service, I learned to talk to people, make presentations and present myself in new situations. Along with gaining confidence, I also learned public speaking skills and people skills. I am now much more comfortable talking to people and working in a job setting where I greet strangers and provide customer service.
Other life skills that have had a positive influence on my college experience are goal setting and planning and organizing. In 4-H we set goals each year and made a plan about how to reach our goals. That was good practice because now I can set goals for my future education and my career and I have the skills to plan and organize how to reach my goals. From my 4-H record book days, I have learned excellent skills that help me with my note taking, record keeping and writing for college assignments. My future goals include pursuing my love of photography and my education in the business management program at SFCC. I have always enjoyed photography and exhibited many photos at the fairs and contributed to club records as a historian. I plan to pursue photography as a potential business and will build on the skills I learned as a hobby photographer. This year I have had some diverse work experiences including retail sales, numerous office procedures and equine management support for a training barn. I will continue my education and also make good use of the life skills foundation that I got from my 4-H experiences. I believe that the woman I am today comes from the little kid who grew up in 4-H and had the benefit of great 4-H volunteers who supported me along the way.”
Jeanne Marshall
Spokane County 4-H Post Secondary
4-H has had a positive impact on my life since I moved to Cheney, Washington. In 2014 I was a shy, art-fixated student new to 4-H. I wanted to be homeschooled for middle school and complete school at my own pace. However, everything I did revolved around school work at home, nothing ‘outside of the box’. My family and I started making various connections through purchasing goats. I was about to find out how 4-H would change my life. West Plains Livestock was the first impression I had of 4-H, and I knew next to nothing about goats or raising them. I was a fish out of water. After being encouraged by my 4-H leaders, I started to become more of a team player. Two years into being a member of West Plains Livestock, I became the club’s president.
I continued to learn how to better collaborate with club members. In the fall of 2016, I joined a 4-H club called Know Your Government (KYG 4-H). This club pushed me out of my comfort zone even more than West Plains Livestock. I was very nervous speaking in front of a group of older, more experienced peers. In my first two years of KYG, my biggest obstacle was seeking donations from business. With time and experience, I became more confident speaking to people. As a result of participating in KYG, I was able to communicate with people better and more efficiently. I was introduced to another 4-H club called Youth Advocates for Health during my freshman year of high school.
Through this program I have taught nutrition and health in elementary schools in multiple districts of Spokane County. I have also helped host various community outreach events for children, teens, and their families. YAH 4-H has given me direct teaching experience with children and provided me with the challenges and rewards of teaching at the elementary level. While I have enjoyed teaching young children, it has steered me towards a career of teaching at the high school or college level. I am now pursuing higher education and completing my bachelors degree of visual arts at Eastern Washington University. Through 4-H, I learned how to be a team player and a leader in a way that few of my college classes have achieved. I have been offered many opportunities that have challenged me to hone my ideas, and to collaborate with other youth. Many of these experiences were very difficult for me at first, but with persistence I discovered more about myself and increased my confidence. I have become a more outgoing individual than I ever would have been without 4-H. I will always remember my 4-H experiences fondly and continue to implement the four H’s in my life.
Accomplishments 2020-2021
-Continuing to raise show-quality dairy goats, daily milk processing, and making dairy products.
-Completing life size costume commissions for clients.
-2nd Harvest food distribution volunteer.
-Completed her final class for a Minor in Japanese.
-Full time undergraduate study, Eastern Washington University.
2022 Scholarship Application Requirements
2021 High School Graduate Scholarship Application Word Doc
2021 High School Graduate Scholarship Rubric
2021 Post Secondary Scholarship Application Word Doc