MIDDLETOWN, Ohio – Addison Sloan is one of 25 youths from across the country taking part in the Roth Scholars Program through the 4-H Leadership Academy. Each of the participating 4-H members selects a project to develop over the course of the two-year program.

The 4-H Leadership Academy was launched by the National 4-H Council with a $1.1 million donation from Atlanta-based businessman and philanthropist Joel Roth. The students taking part are known as Roth Scholars.

Academy participants such as Sloan receive stipends to support research projects that address community challenges, according to the National 4-H Council.

“My project is to promote agriculture in Butler County and also to show the agriculture jobs that are available,” Sloan said. “The first year I will be researching and doing the homework that they give us and interviewing farmers and others in the ag world.”

She wants young people to be aware that they don’t have to own a tractor to be involved in agriculture, she said. Jobs are available in landscaping, and with companies like John Deere, in the fertilizer industry, and more.

In the second year of the project, Sloan will be giving presentations and posting on social media what she has learned, and promoting agriculture in general.

“There is such a disconnect from agriculture,” Sloan said. “Kids don’t know where their food comes from. So, I will be promoting it through social media because social media is more ‘out there,’ so these kids can understand what agriculture truly is about.”

The 4-H Leadership Academy and Roth Scholars Program are part of 4-H’s Beyond Ready Initiative. The goal of the Beyond Ready Initiative is to increase the number of young people that 4-H is impacting annually from six million to 10 million kids by 2030, and ensure that they are prepared for work and life.

“We know that the world is coming at these young people very fast, and there are lots of different pathways forward for them,” said Heather Elliott, senior vice president, chief development and marketing officer of the National 4-H Council. “We want to make sure that they are prepared to be successful on those pathways.”

A key component for being ready for work, life and certainly leadership, is being prepared to give back to your community, Elliott said. Teamwork, critical thinking, and problem solving are key elements of the Beyond Ready Initiative, and they are also key elements of the Roth Scholars Program.

Sloan is part of the second group of students taking part in the 4-H Leadership Academy – the first cohort started in 2024. For both cohorts, five participants were selected from each of five 4-H Cooperative Extension Land Grant Universities. Those universities were in Alabama, Idaho, Minnesota, New Jersey and Ohio.

“We built this program around three core components: learning, so that the young people have a rigorous curriculum, critical thinking, and decision-making. Then they go back home and develop a network of peers and mentors and some national experts on projects that they want to work on to serve and improve their community.”

In May, Sloan, who is considering a career in agricultural law, and the other Roth Scholars went to Washington, D.C., for three days.

“We sat through many leadership seminars,” she said. “We got to know each other and talked about the program. We will have Zoom meetings and then meet again (in two years) at the end of the program.”

Sloan and the others will work with their local educators and mentors in their state to develop a network and really dig into their projects, Elliott said. They will develop an execution plan to improve their community, but sometimes it expands beyond their community to their state.

Data gathered by the National 4-H Council shows that 4-H members are four times more likely to give back to their community than their peers, Elliott said. These young people in the cohort were selected because they wanted to engage in a much deeper curriculum and mentorship experience.

“We have 4-H’ers across the country who are doing millions of projects annually to support their community,” Elliott said. “It is one of the fundamental elements of 4-H, the importance of giving back.”

The other Ohio Roth Scholars are Jaina Cormack, North Ridgeville; Traigh McCollough, Lima; Kendall Wild, Canal Winchester; and Sadie Wilhelmy, Georgetown.