Massachusetts 4-H News

The summer of 2025 saw five college students supporting Massachusetts 4-H across the state.

The USDA NIFA Division of Youth and 4-H  partners with the Department of Defense to support military-connected children and youth to ensure that service members are able to focus on readiness and the mission.

The 4-H STEM Ambassador Summer Program just finished their first week in Springfield!

Just wrapped up a great day at the Hampden County 4-H Youth Fair!

A fun time was had by all at the 75th Worcester County 4-H Fair this past weekend at the Spencer Fairgrounds.

The MA 4-H Animal Science and UMass Veterinary Science programs hosted two sessions of the Explore Vet Science Program at UMass Hadley Farm for youth ages 13–18 interested in veterinary careers.

The 2025 UMass 4-H Cattle Academy, held from June 20–22 at the Three County Fairgrounds in Northampton, MA, provided youth with hands-on experience in washing, fitting, clipping, and showmanship for beef, dairy, and working steer projects.

The Massachusetts 4-H Foundation has announced the recipients of the 2025 Kent Lage Leadership Award.

We have hired a new 4-H Extension Educator for Worcester County.  Please join us in welcoming Shelby Robin to her new position with the UMass Extension 4-H Program! 

Please welcome Andrew Samuelson!  Andrew is joining us as a part-time Animal Science Departmental Assistant. 

Congratulations to our UMass Extension 4-H Youth Development Director! Meg McDermott, who has served as interim director for the UMass Extension 4-H Youth Development program since last fall, has been hired as the permanent 4-H Director. Please welcome Meg to her role as you see her out and about at fairs this summer.

UMass Extension 4-H Youth Development Program is seeking students for paid summer internships.

Applicants must be either undergraduate students who are rising Juniors or Seniors, or graduate students at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. UMass 4-H STEM Ambassadors are trained to provide direct teaching of STEM curriculum to young people throughout Massachusetts. UMass Extension 4-H Educators train STEM Ambassadors with the lessons Ambassadors will teach.  All materials will be provided.

The third annual UMass 4-H STEAM Festival Awards was held on March 14th.  Congralations to all those entered and our winners.  Enjoy this overview from 2023. 2023 Overview and slide show 

National 4-H Agri-Science Summit:

The National 4-H Youth Summit for Agri-Science brings together teen agriculture and science leaders from across the country to focus on learning about and solving agri-science issues impacting our communities and our economy. Our 2022 team worked with several of the 2021 team to update their action plan and prepare.

Our on the ground team consisted of Hope H. and Owen W. of Plymouth with chaperone Meg Riley, local 4-H Educator.

The UMass Art Department partnered with the UMass 4-H Youth Development Program to offer a hybrid program on designing Apps for youth ages 10-13.  Then on April 9th the 4-H'ers joined Professor Jeffery Kasper’s UMass Art students on campus for a Design-A-Thon where they learned about taking their plans and using a program called “Marvelapp”.

UMass 4-H held the 2022 4-H Visual Presentation Day in April for all youth ages 8-19 who qualified at their local level.  Public Speaking is an important life skill that is taught through 4-H projects during the year and culminates at the 4-H Visual Presentation Day.  Pictured is Molly Quinn of Middleboro MA with her blue ribbon and rosette with her presentation on Mushroom Spore Printing.  Molly belongs to the Soule Kids 4-H Club in Plymouth County.   

4-H MEMBERS ATTEND 2021 NATIONAL 4-H CONGRESS. Six 4-H youth represented Massachusetts at the 100th National 4-H Congress, held November 26-30, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, in Atlanta, Georgia. Over 900 delegates from across the United States and Puerto Rico, gathered to participate in this year’s special 100th celebration “A CENTURY OF Empowering Youth” Congress