As Nebraska 4-H starts to wind down another year, we are starting to prepare for the next step for our members.
We find new challenges. 4-H is prepared with traditional programs and a structure that has been meeting those challenges for over 100 years. A statistic that today’s kindergarten students and first year 4-H members are not aware of is that they will be entering a workforce to take jobs of which 80 percent don’t currently exist. Youngsters today cannot answer the question “what do you want to do when you grow up?” in terms of vocation because the vocations they most likely will undertake do not exist today.
The age-old question “what do you want to be when you group up?” has conditioned us to think of our purpose in life in terms of a vocation. Answers are usually, “I want to be a cowboy, fireman, teacher of doctor.” In reality, you might do all of these things – and more. Today, people change jobs several times during their life, and future generations will likely change even more. Preparing today’s children for the future is to educate them in terms of purpose and vocations that develop that purpose, educate them in terms of purpose, and vocations that develop that purpose. The rate of change for the next generation will be phenomenal, and personal sense of destiny must ride the waves of that constant change.
Destiny can be defined as “the power or agency that determines the course of events.” Studies show that most people believe that have a calling or destiny in life. But the same studies indicate that most don’t consider themselves to be fulfilling their destiny in their current job. They feel that nowhere in their educational and life experience were they shown how to find the path of their purpose. Without a sense of destiny, a job just ends up being a job.
4-H members begin building their destiny through participation in many rewarding projects. Members select the projects that hold their particular interest. They “learn by doing” and therefore learn to achieve and learn to improve on their achievements. Members expand their skills by making presentations at 4-H events and by exhibiting their projects at the fair.
4-H teaches life skills that begin shaping their destiny in life. Those life skills include relating to others, developing an inquiring mind, learning to make decisions, and set goals, developing a concern for the community and gaining a positive self-image. They learn to relate to others by making presentations at 4-H club meetings and county-wide 4-H events. They also learn parliamentary procedure skills by club meeting participation. 4-Her’s develop an inquiring mind by learning about a project of their choosing, whether that be woodworking, child development or aerospace. They learn decision making and goal setting by participating in livestock or consumer science judging contests, as well as deciding what project to undertake and setting goals to achieve within that project.
4-H clubs teach concern for community by conducting community improvement project. A positive self-image is built by learning to make a presentation in front of a group, constructing a bookshelf, or making a motion at a meeting.
By participating in 4-H activities, events, and project completions, 4-H’ers learn skills that will apply to any vocation and all aspects of life’s activities, putting them on a pathway to a purpose, in a sense…. achieving their destiny. 4-H can help guide your youth as they develop their career path. Give us a call today to see what options and programs we have that would fit into your youth’s destiny.
