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Minnesota 4-H held the Southwest BLU and TEEL leadership workshops on February 18 at Southwest Minnesota State University for 58 youth from across our region.
In February, youth from across Minnesota gathered to participate in the annual 4-H Building Leadership and Understanding (BLU) and Teens Engaged in Emerging Leadership (TEEL) workshops. Four regional BLU and TEEL leadership events were held across the state. BLU was facilitated by youth leaders from the Minnesota 4-H State Ambassador program and TEEL was led by older 4-H youth leaders and 4-H alumni. The events were also supported by a team of adult chaperones.
This year’s theme focuses on “Seasons of Growth”. Youth learned about leadership while connecting to their own personal story and experiences through hands-on activities. They engaged in small group discussions, educational workshops and large group activities to meet other young people from throughout the region. Youth also had the chance to learn about the Crayon Initiative, which is an organization that takes used crayons, melts them down and creates new crayons for kids in the hospital. This organization helps bring joy to children who are ill and keeps millions of crayons out of landfills.
BLU focuses on youth who are in middle school to help them develop their leadership skills, whereas TEEL targets high school age youth to help them take their leadership skills to the next level and help them look deeper into their journeys as leaders.
Using a youth-teaching-youth model, the 4-H BLU leadership workshops are developed and led by 4-H State Ambassadors and Minnesota 4-H youth who have been selected to serve as spokespeople for 4-H. Their purpose is to educate youth and adults about the importance of youth development, leadership, citizenship, service, teamwork and other invaluable life skills. To challenge the older youth that attend, TEEL is designed and facilitated by a team of older youth and young adult leaders to build on the leadership skills older youth have developed at BLU and through their lived experience both within and outside of 4-H.
Youth participants were also able to learn more about the SMSU Agronomy and Theatre departments from faculty and students, experienced Student Dining and received a campus tour.
To learn more about 4-H in Murray County, contact 4-H Extension Educator, Kim Hause, at 507-836-1144 and visit the website, www.4-H.umn.edu.
