Hundreds of high school students from across Iowa arrived on Iowa State’s campus this week to attend the annual summer 4-H conference.

The 4-H conference has become a popular program for students to get involved in throughout their high school years. The program focuses on challenging students with activities that will enhance basic skills and relationships for future life experiences.

Brenda Allen, who works with 4-H youth development in extension and outreach, said the main goal for the 4-H program is to emphasize the leadership development for young people.

Allen was in charge of organizing the program and handled many of the logistic duties from day to day.

“My job was to support and help out the Iowa State 4-H Council group,” Allen said. “I got them the materials they needed and made sure to get them in the places they needed to be.”

Throughout the three-day event, the kids attended motivational speakers, community service programs and many different workshops located all around campus.

“There is such a big range in workshops,” Allen said. “We have a couple workshops being done by the food science human nutrition department where the kids are cooking and testing in the food lab. We also have a leadership workshop being done by the ROTC.”

The kids stayed in housing on campus throughout the three-day program and were shuttled around by adult chaperones or members from the Iowa State 4-H Youth Council.

The Iowa State 4-H Youth Council is a group of 40 high school students from across Iowa, and its members provided a lot of the leadership during the conference. They helped lead different groups to their workshops and helped create the schedule the kids followed.

Matt Staley, 18, conference co-chairman of the Iowa State 4-H Youth Council, said that during the program he helped lead different workshops, lead kids to community service projects and introduced keynote speakers.

“My family has been made up of 4-Hers for as long as I can remember,” Staley said. “My three older siblings were on the 4-H Council and I’ve been a member for the past two years.”

To join the program, one does not have to be involved with 4-H in high school, but most of the students who participate are.

“I think for the most part the kids are choosing to come — it’s not something their parents have forced them into,” Allen said. “I would say this event is one of the highlights for them throughout their high school years in 4-H.”

The program is intended to provide young people with experiences and skills that can help them now and throughout the rest of their lives.

“4-H teaches extremely valuable life lessons,” Staley said. “The people that you can meet through 4-H are some of the brightest and best people that you’ll ever have the opportunity to meet in your entire life.”