The University of California has highlighted the influence of its 4-H youth development program in shaping future leaders in agriculture and related fields. The 4-H program, administered by UC and other land-grant universities since 1914, engages young people aged 5 to 18 in activities centered on agriculture, livestock, food, and community service.
Tracy Schohr, a UC Cooperative Extension advisor working in Plumas, Sierra, and Butte counties, credits her experience in 4-H for equipping her with skills in teamwork and leadership from an early age. “Everything you do in 4-H has some element of a team putting together an activity, or a fundraiser,” Schohr said. “You learn about agriculture and the community you live in, but you also have leadership opportunities, like planning community service or leading a meeting using parliamentary procedure from a very young age.”
Schohr’s background includes raising cattle as part of her family’s ranching operation in Gridley and participating broadly in 4-H projects ranging from cooking to photography. She later earned degrees from California State University, Chico and UC Davis. Her current work involves addressing challenges faced by California ranchers—including wildfire response and the return of gray wolves to Northern California.
Discussing her role as an intermediary between ranchers and wildlife officials during the resurgence of gray wolves, Schohr explained: “When the first wolf was in the Sierra Valley, I was called by the Department of Fish and Wildlife to connect with the rancher where the wolf’s GPS collar was pinging.” She works on various solutions such as analyzing predator patterns with artificial intelligence and collecting biological samples for research at UC Davis.
UC Cooperative Extension supports communities across all 58 counties with nearly 200 advisors and more than 100 specialists. The division contributes to making California the nation’s top agricultural state—agriculture generated $61.2 billion in revenue for California in 2024 (https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/statistics/).
Schohr emphasized: “Cooperative Extension takes the science and knowledge that is developed at the university and puts it in the hands of the people on the ground. And it’s not just research from the University of California, we’re pulling in research from all across the nation to help land managers, farmers, and ranchers in California address the challenges they face, while conducting research in our own local communities too.”
Ariel Rivers is another example of how participation in 4-H can lead to a career supporting agriculture. Raised on a ranch near Livermore, Rivers managed her own flock of sheep by age nine through 4-H programs. She noted: “I felt like I could control them better than a giant steer, you know? I basically became a little sheep entrepreneur.”
Rivers credits her involvement with 4-H for helping her save money for college and develop essential skills such as public speaking and fundraising. She attended UC Davis to study hydrology after being inspired by challenges faced on her family’s property.
She later earned a Ph.D. from Penn State University before taking on her current position overseeing membership engagement for the National Association of Conservation Districts—a nonpartisan organization that brings together farmers, government agencies, and conservation groups.
Reflecting on bridging urban-rural divides within California’s diverse landscape, Rivers said: “Growing up in the Bay Area, you see millions of people literally on one side of the hill; then on the other side it’s all agricultural land. I realized we need more conversations about what’s happening in these different places—there can’t be this dichotomy of urban versus rural.”
She added: “For those of us connected to farming or ranching… it’s a lifestyle… but that’s 2% of the population now. So we have a lot of challenges. I work with farmers and ranchers to think about how to improve their operations. And there’s a lot of jobs that just don’t get filled because people don’t know they exist.”
Both Schohr’s and Rivers’ experiences suggest that youth engagement programs like 4-H continue to play an important role in sustaining California’s agricultural sector.
