Hailey Jones

Hailey Jones is the current agriculture teacher at Southeast High School in Bradenton, FL and recent graduate of the University of Florida. She attended college from 2022-25 and majored in agricultural education and communication. She specialized in communication and leadership and minored in extension education while also obtaining a certification through the honors scholar program.

4-H Involvement

Hailey started participating in Sarasota 4-H when she was only five years old. She has participated at the county, district and state levels. She was also on county and district councils and state executive board. Through executive board, she helped plan 4-H Day at the Capitol and 4-H University.

Hailey was incredibly involved! She held multiple officer positions in all of her clubs. Finally, she competed at county, district, and state levels through demonstrations and Share the Fun. Share the Fun is a competition that allows 4-H’ers to showcase their talents like singing and dancing. Hailey was a part of the Clogging Clovers. Out of the two times she was able to attend the state competition she placed second and first for her team clogging routines.

Pretty much everything you can do in 4-H has been done by Hailey once! As you can see, Hailey is one of our model students who is proving every day, just how much 4-H can provide if you truly apply yourself. 

A member of Clogging Clovers, 4-H Livestock Club, and 4-Paws, she expressed that she wasn’t sure how she was able to do it all. Through 4-H Livestock, she showed dairy cows, steers, a beef heifer and one pig. In 4-Paws, she showed her dogs. Through both clubs she was able to compete at the Florida State Fair!

Favorite 4-H memory: Her favorite memories were always at camp. Being able to be at camp with her best friends making lifelong memories was such a joy. Some of her happiest moments were at Camp Cloverleaf and she has been working there for the past couple of summers.

Favorite 4-H project(s): dairy cows

4-H in College

Hailey is at the beginning of a very promising career in agricultural education. During her time between childhood 4-H and now, she stayed involved as a college student. In college, she was the president of Collegiate 4-H at UF for two years. She got to go to conferences with Collegiate 4-H and mainly focused on the services and leadership side of it all. So, she got to develop those skills a lot more. She also did the 4-H internship with Sarasota County UF/IFAS Extension office (that I am currently doing now). She expressed to me that that was interesting especially since she was doing it in the county that she was raised in. Hailey was always going to be involved in 4-H. Her mom was in 4-H in Sarasota County and born here. Her mom, Janice Jones, is a leader of Clogging Clovers and Livestock.

In the future, Hailey is planning on continuing to be active. Her mother really wants her to be a 4-H leader. However, she doesn’t know if that will happen this year because she will have plenty on her plate being an FFA advisor at her new job.

Life Skills

Hailey relayed what life skills she developed through 4-H. She thought she developed all the skills shown, but if she had to choose, she highlighted leadership, teamwork, self-motivation, self-responsibility, social skills, keeping records, and service learning.

“Most definitely. I don’t think I would be the person I am today without developing those skills through 4-H. I would definitely not be in the career field I am in now, if I hadn’t been in 4-H.” relayed Hailey.

4-H as a Whole

Hailey thinks that 4-H is a very diverse organization and it’s very hard to explain to people who have never heard about it before. She elaborates that, 4-H is an organization that is open to all youth, ages 5 – 18 that allows youth to create memories, engage with their peers, and become leaders through opportunities that they wouldn’t get through other organizations. She feels as though other organizations will focus on one thing. 4-H encompasses all important life skills and makes its programming accessible. Through scholarships, she rarely paid to go to events. That’s the power of 4-H. The more involved you were, the more likely you were to get a scholarship, and she was incredibly involved. She got to be a lot more independent at a younger age than a lot of her friends that weren’t in 4-H. Even though each 4-H club has its own niche, you can join multiple clubs and be involved in many things through one organization.

One piece of advice she offers to parents who are considering letting their child join 4-H is:

“Don’t be afraid to let your child try new things. Because I’m aware most parents have not shown a dairy cow, so that can be intimidating. But there are plenty of resources that can help, and 4-H is extremely welcoming. 4-H’ers want to help others have those opportunities. So, don’t let that intimidation stop you from letting your child have amazing and different opportunities. And don’t be afraid to go to that first meeting and get out of your comfort zone!”

For more information about Sarasota 4-H and clubs – https://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/sarasota/4-h-youth-development/4-h-youth-development/4-h-clubs/

Contact 4h@scgov.net to find out more.

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