Andrew Courville represented his family, North Vermilion High School, Vermilion Parish, Acadiana, and Louisiana as a National 4-H Conference Delegate, a premier 4-H opportunity. He spent six days in Washington DC along with 3 other delegates from other parts of the state.
Currently a junior interested in pursuing a career in government, Andrew cherished every part of the experience. However, when asked about what his favorite part was, he quickly answered, “I think it would have to be a tie between meeting new people and the youth perspective briefings.” The 300 delegates from across the states, territories, and tribal lands were divided into twenty roundtable groups of their choice, each of which had a prompt from a federal agency or department. In those small groups, they were tasked with designing a presentation on solutions to the problem presented. Andrew was placed in the “Intergenerational Collaboration for Environmental Justice” group which presented ideas to the Council on Environmental Justice on how youth and the federal government can cooperate to advance the environmental justice agenda of the Biden-Harris Administration. After two days of work, the group of 15 high school students prepared an impressive presentation highlighting three Initiatives in response to the prompt. Andrew said he was surprised when the group was praised by the CEQ because “We’re in high school, and the voices of youth are commonly disregarded in the world, but on this occasion, I think they might actually implement some of our ideas in some way. It sounds crazy, but just because we’re youth doesn’t mean we’re not smart enough to have great ideas, and I think the CEQ understood that.”
In addition to the youth perspective briefings, Andrew had a variety of other experiences. He went to a career fair that had representatives from over 20 federal agencies. The Louisiana delegation toured the National Mall and saw a total of seven monuments, Capitol Hill, and two Smithsonian Museums. When they visited Arlington National Cemetery, they were fortunate to watch a unique wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Andrew met several important government officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Louisiana Representative Ms. Julia Letlow (District 5).
When asked about what he would say to others considering applying for National 4-H Conference, Andrew responded, “There’s no other 4-H event like it. 4-H is more than just agriculture, and this is a way to prove that at the national level even if you don’t want to go for the political part of it.” When he considers what 4-H means to him, Andrew claims “It’s the organization which has had the greatest impact on my life. A lot of who I am now began with 4-H, and I’m still learning from it.”
Pictured Below:
Louisiana National 4-H Conference Delegates with Louisiana Representative Julia Letlow (District 5) in Rayburn House Office Building in Washington DC. Pictured are (from left to right) Payton Prichard, Bossier Parish; Samantha Shelton, Franklin Parish; Representative Letlow; Andrew Courville, Vermilion Parish; Emily Nevils, Winn Parish.
