Encintas student wins Youth In Action Award and scholarship from National 4H Council

National 4-H Council recently announced that Encinitas resident Samuel Sugarman, 18, a freshman at Principia College in Elsah, Ill., was selected as winner of the 2017 4-H Youth In Action Award for Agriculture. Sugarman will be nationally recognized for his “true leadership through agriculture education and his free Farm Tour Program.”

Sugarman created the Farm Tour Program to connect youth in his community with animals and nature. Over the past five years, Sugarman led hundreds of farm tours, educating youth about sustainable agriculture, where food comes from, and respect for animals and the earth.

“As a teen leader, I hosted lots of project meetings at my farm and saw how beneficial it was for urban children to interact with the animals,” Sugarman said. “When children grow up disconnected from their food, from animals and from the earth, they miss opportunities to develop qualities of stewardship, compassion, patience, and gratitude.”

Sugarman will receive a $5,000 scholarship for higher education and will serve as spokesperson for 4-H Agriculture programming. He will be officially recognized as the 2017 4-H Youth in Action Pillar Winner for Agriculture at the National 4-H Council Legacy Awards in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, March 21.

In January, Sugarman was also announced as a recipient of a scholarship from the Don Diego Scholarship Foundation.

Last April, he, along with his sister Margaret “Sissy” Sugarman, was also recognized by Congressman Darrell Issa with the Congressional Award for Public Service.

Sugarman is joined is his role as a 2017 4-H Youth in Action Pillar Winner by Amelia Day, Georgia 4-H’er and Citizenship pillar winner; Ava Lonneman, Ohio 4-H’er and STEM pillar winner; and Bryanne Sanchez, California 4-H’er and Healthy living pillar winner.

The 4-H Youth In Action Awards, sponsored in part by Bayer, began in 2010 to recognize 4-H’ers who have overcome challenges and used the knowledge they gained in 4-H to create a lasting impact in their community. This award highlights youth in each of our core areas of Agriculture, Citizenship, Healthy Living and STEM. These four pillars represent the fields in which 4-H youth excel on a national level and align with the mission mandates of National 4-H Council.

To learn more about Youth In Action or to see the other pillar winners from around the country, please visit www.4-h.org/parents/4-h-youth-in-action/