Approximately 200 students from across the state gathered in Boise to learn about government and civic engagement. Idaho’s annual 4-H Know Your Government Conference took place over President’s Day Weekend.

The 4-H Youth Development Program is a community-based educational outreach program for ages five to eighteen. The national organization is supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered through state land-grant university extension offices. The University of Idaho Extension delivers 4-H programs in every county in the state of Idaho.

The Know Your Government Conference is a two-year project where 4-H’ers in eighth and ninth grades participate in either a judicial track or legislative track. Those in the judicial track participate in a mock trial. Bills considered by the mock legislature this year covered topics like veterans’ health coverage, agricultural education, and a program for pregnant mothers who give birth while incarcerated.

Monday morning, students hosted a breakfast with lawmakers, judges, Governor Brad Little, and University of Idaho President C. Scott Green.

“These students are our future scientists, our future farmers, our future commodities brokers and our future leaders,” Green said in his Friday newsletter. “Cultivating that future starts with inspiring and creating a thirst for knowledge among the 15,000-plus members of our 4-H programs.”

The event is planned by returning participants in the tenth and eleventh grades. A group of 20 third-year members participate as bill writers and mock judges for the younger participants, as well as a reporter corps that manages social media campaigns and documents the conference with a newsletter and video. Four fourth-year members serve as the conference steering committee and plan the yearly event.

Logan Finney is an intern with the University of Idaho McClure Center for Public Policy Research and the UI JAMM News Service.