After a year of hard work and dedication, Decatur County 4-H’ers Corbin Austin and Thomas Neal attended the 2019 Georgia 4-H State Congress held on July 23-26, at the Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter at Ravinia in Atlanta, Georgia. Corbin Austin competed in the Public Speaking project while Thomas Neal presented his topic on Bass Fishing in the Outdoor Recreation project area. Decatur County is very proud of these two 4-H’ers.

Georgia 4-H members earn an invitation to compete at State Congress through hard work and dedication. At the beginning of the year, students select an area of study, give an oral presentation before judges at their respective District Project Achievement (DPA), and participate in service and leadership events in their communities throughout the year.

Then the regional first place winners compete at State Congress in a variety of categories including history, horse, performing arts, and public speaking. Each student gives a 12-minute presentation before expert judges and is interviewed about their portfolio that details their research, leadership and service projects.

Arch Smith, state leader for the Georgia 4-H program, calls State 4-H Congress is “the annual capstone event” of the program’s year. “Learn by Doing is a slogan of 4-H, and Georgia 4-H members who have been involved in the Project Achievement process competed for the honor of being named state winner last week,” he said. “We recognized nearly 150 state winners at the annual banquet in 4-H educational programs from agriculture to performing arts to food preparation and healthy living. We are proud of these young people who have reached the highest level of attainment of over 238,000 4-H participants during the program year that ended in July.”