EATONTON — Tift County 4-H competed in the Southwest District Project Achievement contest held at Rock Eagle 4-H Center from Feb. 2-4.

Project Achievement, or DPA, is a public speaking competition where 4-H’ers choose a topic of interest and present a 10-12 minute (seniors) or 6-8 minute speech (juniors) on the subject.

They are also required to submit a portfolio which represents the past year in categories such as project work, community service, leadership activities, and other school organizations.

Tift County had 16 4-H’ers attend this competition in grades 7-12, all placing in their category.

They had five juniors (middle school-aged students) who competed, with four members receiving first place and one placing third.

Michael Smith received first place in the Engineering and Mechanics category; Emeri Golden received first in the Financial Planning and Consumer Economics category; Maggie Nelson received first in Sports Individual; Mihir Bag received first in Physical, Biological and Earth Sciences and Jermaine Gains received third in the Sports team category.

Tift County’s 11 senior (high school-aged) 4-H’ers also excelled at the competition.

Daniel McEachin competed in the Arts and Craft category where he placed fourth; Lilla Beecher competed in Dairy Foods and placed fifth; Pranav Shankar placed first in Robotics; Coleman Mangham placed second in Physical, Biological, and Earth Sciences.

Molly Wells placed first in the Festive Foods for Health; Bethany Samuel placed first in Environmental Science’ Colin Williamson placed second in the Swine project’ Philycia Hamilton placed first in History.

Leila Rimes placed first in Workforce Preparation and Career Development; Alex Birdsong placed second in Photography, and Max Nelson placed first in Computer Information Technology.

Senior 4-H’ers who placed first in their projects or second with sweepstakes (large projects) at the district contest to advance to State Congress. This is a weeklong event held in Atlanta where they have the opportunity to compete against 4-H’ers across the state of Georgia with their presentations and portfolios, as well as undergo an interview process.

Those who compete in this level of competition can earn the highest honor as a Georgia 4-H’er, which is Master 4-H status. Tift County 4-H has six students advancing to State 4-H Congress: Pranav Shankar, Molly Wells, Bethany Samuel, Leila Rimes, Philycia Hamilton, and Max Nelson.

The District Board of Directors is a group of 16 4-H’ers, eight juniors and eight seniors, who help lead their peers and host many events for the district over their one-year term.

Those who wish to serve on the board must campaign all weekend at Rock Eagle during DPA. They write a campaign speech to present in front of their peers, create posters, and make many new friends during this process.

In addition to project competitions, Tift County was excited to have Hamilton serving as 2023-2024 Southwest District Senior Board Vice President. Hamilton has done a stupendous job representing Tift at the district level.

This year, four Tift County 4-H members, Max Nelson, Leila Rimes, Jermane Gaines and Lilla Beecher decided to go for the leadership role and campaigned for a spot on district board. Directors and volunteers said they are so proud of all the students who chose to campaign.

Rimes was elected to the 2024-2025 Southwest District Senior Board of Directors, Nelson was elected to serve as the 2024-2025 Southwest District Senior Board President, and Gaines was elected as a board member to serve on the 2024-2025 Junior board of directors.

This group was led by Ashley Carroll (4-H agent), Ty Torrance (ANR agent), Donovan Nelson (4-H AmeriCorps service member), and Kelsie Hanley (4-H AmeriCorps service member).

They would like to give a huge thank you to all of the staff, volunteers, and donors who made this opportunity possible for the 16 competitors.

“We could not have accomplished all that we did without your help and support,” they said.

Tift County 4-H has fun, educational and competitive programs for all Tift County youth in grades 5-12. For more information on Tift County 4-H, please contact (229) 391-7980.