Saturday Workshop Descriptions

Saturday, 1-5pm

Quest 4 Thriving: Promoting a Sense of Belonging Among Your Peers

Matthew Rodriguez, Liliana Vega, Kait Murray – 4-H Advisors

Senior SLC
Want to know the secret to truly thriving? It all starts with belonging. In this hands-on session, we’ll break down the factors that can shape a person’s sense of belonging. As a leader, you can cultivate that sense of belonging in your community to help your community thrive!

STEM Leadership and Mentorship: Building the Future Through Innovation and Guidance

Sudharsan Gopalakrishnan – National 4-H STEM Mentor

Senior SLC

Prepare for an exciting hands-on experience that will spark your passion for STEM and leadership! In this interactive workshop, you'll dive into the world of science, technology, engineering, and math while learning what it takes to become a leader and mentor in your community. You'll learn about successful mentorships in STEM, then team up with others to take on a real-world challenge, like building a sustainable energy system or crafting an AI solution, as both a mentor and a mentee. Through fun role-playing activities, you'll build valuable leadership, networking, and innovation skills. Plus, you’ll walk away with an action plan to help guide others and grow your impact in 4-H and beyond. Whether you're just getting started or already dreaming big in STEM, this workshop will empower you to lead, inspire, and make a difference.

Building Your Financial Journey 

Steward Pimienta – Travis Credit Union

Senior SLC

Want to make smarter choices with your money? This engaging presentation is all about helping you take charge of your financial future. You’ll discover how to set meaningful financial goals, create a budget that fits your lifestyle, and understand the basics of saving and investing, all in a way that makes sense. Packed with interactive activities, this session keeps things fun and relatable, and every student who attends has the chance to win a gift card! Whether you're thinking about college, your first job, or want to be smarter with your money, this presentation gives you the tools to make it happen.

Agreements: A Deep Dive Into Working Together

Maria Bruhns – Elementary School Teacher  

Senior SLC & Intermediate SLC

Would you like to improve how you work with others in a group setting? The Agreements workshop dives into how we can divide group work into fair and logical ways to better one another in a collaboration . Learn an understanding of how to set a team up for success by listening to each team player’s voice. Planning agreements for a group of people working together provides a beneficial environment where everyone feels heard and seen. 

Find Your Window

2024-2025 California 4-H State Ambassadors

Senior SLC & Intermediate SLC

Looking through windows gives us a glimpse into new and different perspectives. Finding your own window will provide you with your passions, build healthy bonds, and help you create a sense of community. Through active learning and identifying your spark, the State Ambassadors will help you find your window. Your window can motivate your actions and let you thrive!

Pathways to More Just Futures: Lessons from LGBTQIA+ Liberation Movements

Kait Murray – Community Engagement and Youth Outreach Academic Coordinator and Stepha Velednitsky - Contra Costa County 4-H Advisor

Senior SLC

How have LGBTQIA+ communities created change, even in the face of injustice? In this interactive workshop, you’ll explore key moments in LGBTQIA+ history through a role-playing game that brings past movements to life. Learn how people built power, found belonging, and led with courage. Then reflect on how you, too, can be a changemaker in your own community no matter your background or identity.

4-H Youth Experiences In Science, aka YES!

Sacramento 4-H Teen Teachers

Senior SLC

Want to bring science to life for younger kids and become a leader while you're at it? In this hands-on workshop, you’ll learn how to be a YES teen teacher and spark curiosity in elementary students through fun, science-based lessons like Magic Bubbles and Snail Trails. You'll explore how to teach using the YES curriculum, prep lessons as a team, and build confidence as a mentor. If you’re ready to lead, learn, and make science magical for the next generation, this is the session for you!

Align Actions to Values for Impact

Lynette Ward – Leadership & Career Development Consultant, Coach & Training Facilitator

Senior SLC

What do you care about, and how are you showing it? In this workshop, you'll explore how aligning your actions with your values can shape your life, community, and future. Through a mix of hands-on activities, small group conversations, and real talk, you’ll identify your core values and create a plan to take meaningful action in 4-H, school, and beyond. You’ll also hear how one 4-H alum used this approach to build a career and life with purpose, and how you can too. Get ready to move from autopilot to intentional impact.

Root & Renew: Integrating Nature to Support Your Well-Being

Ally Lemmer – Healthy Living Academic Coordinator, Marcel Horowitz – Community, Nutrition & Health Advisor, Kait Murray – Community Engagement & Youth Outreach Academic Coordinator

Senior SLC & Intermediate SLC

Are you feeling stressed or overwhelmed? This workshop will help provide techniques to improve your mood using nature and art expression, as well as an opportunity to bridge the connection between social-emotional health and nature with hands-on activities that you can bring back to your club. Stress may come with leadership responsibilities but this workshop will leave you with fun strategies to help ease and manage it. 

Teen Teaching for Healthy Living & Community Impact

Sacramento 4-H Teens as Teachers Cooking Academy

Senior SLC

Are you up for impacting your community in a very positive way? This 4-H Cooking Academy workshop would be perfect for you. Come have some FUN with food, become a young nutrition educator, enjoy making and eating delicious, healthy foods all while making new teen friends from across the state and learning how to educate others on your skills.

Making STEM Simple

Texas 4-H STEM Ambassadors

Senior SLC

This workshop will prepare you to lead STEM activities at meetings, camps and other events. By learning STEM and applying it with hands-on experiments, you will leave with valuable STEM lessons to teach your peers!

Survivor: 4-H Island

Adeline Vertucci, Evelyn Whatley

Intermediate SLC

Stranded on “4-H Island,” teams must work together to complete a series of fun, interactive challenges that test their leadership, communication, and conflict-resolution skills to survive! You will demonstrate effective communication, collaborative decision-making, and healthy conflict resolution approaches in time-sensitive or resource-limited challenges.

Knowing When to Step Up and Step Back

Samuel Belik

Intermediate SLC

As 4-H’ers, you know how hard it can be to say no to another leadership role! This workshop will teach you when to step up and take on responsibilities and when to step back and allow others to have those opportunities. You will learn how to identify places where you can take initiative and learn communication and teamwork skills.

Empower, Innovate, Lead: A Mock National Conference 

National 4-H Conference Delegation

Senior SLC

National 4-H Conference is one of our favorite 4-H events and through this workshop, you can get a taste for why! By working in teams to discuss real-world 4H challenges, you will develop leadership, collaboration, and communication skills. You will get the chance to represent your local 4-H club and be prepared to attend National 4-H Conference in the future!