Making Agriculture a Place to Belong

“I can’t turn anyone away. I won’t,” said Jill Goedeken, when talking about the 52-member 4-H club she co-leads in Columbus, Neb. “I want kids to belong.”

The belonging Goedeken is talking about has roots back to the winter of 1993, “I was eight years old and that was the first 4-H meeting I attended at the Gresham Community Center. Nancy Heine was my 4-H club leader, and I remember how much I loved feeling like I belonged there. 

Those seeds of belonging were so strong that Goedeken pursued a career around 4-H and Extension. She started at the county level for 10 years and moved on to a statewide job the past three years. Today she is a 4-H volunteer and professional development extension educator. 

Goedeken’s roles include conducting 4-H professional volunteer development, 4-H data, enrollment, and overseeing the State Fair software, “I also do the Nebraska State Fair static exhibit and contests. I have been in the process of getting ready for the 2025 fair season with tasks such as getting the fair books ready to go and approved.” 

“It’s like I often tell students today, the job they are going to do in the future probably doesn’t even exist yet. That was the case for me,” she went on to say about her position. “4-H youth development is a fairly new focused area of Extension. When I was young, 4-H was led by other 4-H agents that stepped up and volunteered to do it. The Extension people who were also doing their main work with crops, water, food/health, and nutrition also managed the 4-H program. Now it is a focused program and a studied and researched field.” 

Along with developing a passion for 4-H and serving as president of FFA in high school, Goedeken had a lifelong experience growing up on a farm where her parents, John and Lorrie Klepper, still reside today, “I grew up on a diversified crop and livestock farm near Utica, where I learned the value of hard work and responsibility.” 

Today, she and her husband Kyle, live on a farm with their children Kade (age 13) and Kendall (age 9), “Our family’s operation includes corn, soybeans, alfalfa, a cow/calf operation and a few head of show pigs/sows each year.”

Both Kade and Kendall are heavily involved with 4-H too. Kade’s hog was just named Grand Champion Overall Market Swine at the 2024 Nebraska State Fair and Kendall is equally passionate about her pursuits in the organization that include sports and sewing. Her mom said, “You can often find Kendall at the sewing machine in our living room.” 

“Kade just started trapshooting too, so I decide to become a certified 4-H shot gun instructor as well,” go-getter Goedeken added. “I just did it because no one else was doing it. It’s another example of 4-H being such a timely program and reaching even more youth with the addition of shooting sports.”

Relaying a trapshooting memory, she added, “I love that at one of our very first practices for shooting sports, we had a mom there with her son. The parents have to be along because we don’t allow the kids to do the sport by themselves. In this case it was the boy’s very first practice and when he shot the very first time, he hit the clay pigeon and gave his mom the biggest smile. She was crying and said, ‘He hasn’t found his thing yet and I think this is it.’ It’s really fun watching the kids find their spark.”

When it comes to 4-H and FFA for her personal family, Goedeken enthusiastically said, “I think one of the biggest benefits is that we do these activities as a family. The whole 4-H program to us is a family activity. For us, we don’t just drop the kids off at the show barn and say we will pick you up in a couple of hours. I think that family aspect is the most important thing to me personally.”

Goedeken said anyone should consider 4-H as an option for their family too. There’s something for rural and urban kids alike, “Get involved! This is your community. Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in a democracy. You vote in elections every year, but when you volunteer, you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in. If you want a vibrant place to work and call home, get out and make it what you want.” 

In this tireless mom and professional’s case, she is making 4-H an amazing opportunity for everyone who comes her way. Because, as Goedeken said, if someone wants to be involved in 4-H, “I can’t turn anyone away. I won’t. I want kids to belong.”