Meet Alana Aulph: Monroe County 4-H
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EmailA personal testimonial of the impact of Michigan 4-H from Monroe County 4-H'er Alana Aulph.
Alana Aulph is 18 years-old and has been a 4-H member in Monroe County for 11 years, where she participated in the poultry, rabbits, arts and crafts, and leadership areas. She was honored in 2022 and 2023 with Michigan 4-H State Awards for Leadership and Visual, Performing and Expressive Arts, respectively, among other accolades. She is now a freshman at MSU, studying nursing. In September, Alana shared a personal essay reflecting on the impact of the Michigan 4-H program on her life. The following is her testimonial, delivered to guests at the 2024 Michigan 4-H Legacy Awards Celebration.
As a third generation 4-H’er, I am extremely grateful that my mom and grandma continue to be active leaders within the program and are a part of my 4-H experience. I have always enjoyed how 4-H allows me to meet other youth from my county and even across the state by attending events like 4-H Exploration Days.
One of the unique things Monroe County 4-H does is ride our bikes from Monroe to East Lansing in the days before 4-H Exploration Days. This 140-mile ride is spread over the course of three days and during that time, we get to spend a lot of time as a group creating lots of strong bonds and friendships.
We complain together, struggle together, but best of all, we finish together. We encourage each other along the way and when it’s finally over, we get to enjoy and celebrate that we all made it together.
At the end of those three days, we have created many great friendships. It is a great start to the week, that not many other 4-H’ers get the opportunity to do.
Along with this, as I’m sure everyone knows, fair week is the biggest week of all. This is when we get to showcase all of our hard work by competing with our peers. Setting up the fair involves hard work and requires a lot of volunteers; it is like one big project in a way, it takes a lot of people to make it run smoothly.
A few ways I am able to contribute are by picking up the recycled cardboard every night and cleaning the grandstands bright and early every morning. Although these tasks do not seem fun or enjoyable, doing them with all the youth makes it a good experience. This gives us a behind-the-scenes look at what happens on the fairgrounds. Something as simple as picking up cardboard can make a huge difference in how smoothly the fair runs.
Finally, one other great opportunity I have gotten is the possibility to teach a craft at a mini expo. Through this, I was able to work with many different kids of all ages. Along with this, I got the opportunity to be a 4-H princess. Throughout both of these roles, I was able to teach and mentor many different kids.
Getting to share my knowledge and skills with younger 4-H’ers has helped me along the way with choosing a career path. In the future, I have plans to become a pediatric nurse, where I can hopefully make a difference in a lot of young lives.
