Over 100 youth representing Virginia Cooperative Extension attend the annual Ignite by 4-H conference at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C. in March. These youth represented all 4-H pillar areas, and participated in leadership workshops inspiring them to return to their communities Beyond Ready to make a difference as local agents for change and positive impact.

Garima Patel, a Roanoke 4-H'er, describes her experience attending and presenting at Ignite by 4-H as a Virginia 4-H Healthy Living Ambassador.

"I recently attended the National Ignite Workshop in Washington, D.C., where I represented Virginia 4-H Healthy Living Ambassadors and had an awesome experience.

We, as Healthy Living Ambassadors for Virginia, presented a workshop called "Cool, Calm, and Collected," and we got to teach our peers and teens about healthy living habits, ways to relieve stress, and ways to stay healthy in high-pressure situations. The whole experience of Ignite was great. I made many new connections and bonds, learned many new things from my workshops, and had the opportunity to learn from many intellectual keynote speakers who were very insightful about our future and heading to college in a few years.

Group of youth stands in front of a projector screen at a conference.
The Virginia Youth Healthy Living Ambassadors presented at Ignite by 4-H. Photo courtesy of Garima Patel.

I learned many new things about myself, but the most interesting piece of information that I learned from our keynote speaker, Ally Price, was to keep believing in yourself and always ask for help and not to be shy. She stated, “There are 2 ways for you to be successful: reach out and research.” I thought this was  a great piece of advice: use your connections to get somewhere, know what you are getting yourself into, and everything will be good.

This experience affected me by learning more about the fields that I am interested in, which are based around healthy living and STEM. Through many workshops these past few days, I learned many life lessons and skills, healthy living habits, and more about biotechnology, which I found quite interesting. I am glad I met many new people that I didn’t know before and had a great time with them at this awesome conference. A new place we went to was the Washington Monument and the war monument, which was great for pictures, and the cherry blossoms made it so much better for a scenic, beautiful view. Overall, I totally recommend this conference and had a blast with my fellow healthy living ambassadors and friends!"