The California 4-H State Leadership Conference (SLC) is held every year at UC Davis. This conference is a chance for 13 – 18 year old 4-H members from all over California to come together to be trained in leadership skills, meet new friends from different counties, and have a great learning experience. 

This year's conference was held July 26^th – 29^th and Adler Striegel and I were lucky enough to attend.  Members also get to stay the weekend in the dorms on campus, which gives the opportunity to feel what it's like to live on a college campus and manage their own schedule.

We arrived on Thursday, July 26^th, got settled into our dorm rooms, had dinner together and then broke into our Program Assistant, or “PA"groups. In our groups we got to know each other, went over the schedule for the weekend, and then we were off to see Inside Out. We watched the movie Inside Out because it is all about recognizing feelings and learning that it's okay to feel all of your feelings and that you don't just have to be happy all the time.

On Friday everyone went on their chosen tours around Sacramento. Adler and I got a tour of the capitol building and then we toured the UC Davis campus. Other members went to tours such as the Computer Science (CS) Summit, UC Davis Institute of Food Science, California Raptor Center, Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, and the Underground Tour of Old Sacramento. That night after dinner we went to the great hall to do activities to help us make new friends. To make new friends we had to find another person and give them a high-five and introduce ourselves. Then we had to find another person and give them a fist-bump and introduce ourselves. Then, we had to go back and find our high-five friend. Since there were more than 100 people attending, it was a little hard to find our new friends, but eventually we did.   After that activity we had a ‘trinket trade' where we gave out items that represented our club, I painted shells to look like a strawberry and Adler painted beach rocks with a 4-H clover.

The next day after breakfast we had a guest speaker called ‘The Ripples Guy'. He taught us all about  what he had learned about building bridges and being able to find areas of connection between people. We may live far apart and have different beliefs, but we can always find something that connects us. Then, we can pass it on, and that is the ripple. The rest of the day on Saturday was spent going to different workshops depending on what we wanted to learn about. Adler and I went to the session called, “Soap for Hope and Emerald Star and Beyond” where we learned that making soap is difficult but that they were making it for a good cause. The project was about making soap to give to victims of domestic abuse. I thought that it was a really great idea that they went to all of the trouble to make soap to give to people who are having a hard time. In the afternoon we got to meet the new State Ambassadors and learn more about the program. On Saturday night we got to dance to DJ Hightop for three hours with new friends. The dance was so much fun!

On our last day we had a self-awareness and stress reliving workshop out on the field. In this workshop we learned to meditate and have a “mind wash” where we stopped thinking about things and made our minds clear. We also got to make stress balls and paint watercolor to relax and be creative. Finally, it was time to go home and so we had to say goodbye to our new friends and PAs and head home to share all that we learned with our clubs. I would recommend SLC to all members who are 13 – 18 years old because it makes you feel connected to 4-H in a bigger way because you get to meet members from all over and hear about all their clubs and activities.