Twin Falls teen selected for prestigious national 4-H leadership scholarship
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IDAHO FALLS – Grace Wangeman is one of five high school students from Idaho who was selected for the 2026 Roth Scholarship.
The program, launched in 2024, is a partnership between the National 4-H Council and Georgia-based businessman and philanthropist Joel Roth. He provided $1.1 million to launch a 4-H Leadership Academy. The two-year program gives youth an opportunity to explore a real challenge in their community and develop a research-based project that builds skills in communication, problem-solving, collaboration and community engagement.
The program is available to students from five 4-H Cooperative Extension Land Grant Universities nationwide. Grace is one of five students who applied through the University of Idaho.
The 16-year-old from Twin Falls tells EastIdahoNews.com she’s thrilled to have been selected for the second class of Roth Scholars.
“I’m very honored to have been chosen. I was very scared about the interview because I (was late in the application process). I put in my application, but compared to all the other kids I know who are also hard-working and so talented, I wasn’t sure if I’d get chosen,” Grace says. “I’m so happy that I get to be one of the Idaho Roth Scholars and learn from other kids across the nation while working on projects together.”
She says she’s still working out the details of her project, but plans to focus on something in the mental health space.
“A lot of people struggle with mental health. I was hoping to do something like that, maybe include classes and getting to know people and their feelings on it,” Grace says.
Grace says she’s known people who struggle with mental illness, and that’s part of her motivation for focusing on it. Although everyone feels anxiety, sadness, and frustration, she says there’s a stigma around mental health, and her goal is to help people change their mindset about it.
“The project will be a way to recognize that we all have our own struggles. You never know what anyone’s life is like, but we can find a community and friends through these struggles,” says Grace.
Over the next two years, Grace will meet regularly with mentors and community leaders to discuss her project and implement it in the community. The scholarship gives her $1,000 to get started, and along the way, any other costs are provided through sponsors.
Growing confidence through 4-H
Grace got her start in 4-H about six years ago. She started in the livestock arena her first year, raising a market dairy goat. Since then, she’s participated in other programs, including baking and KYG (Know Your Government). In KYG, she made several trips to Boise and got to learn about the legislative and judicial branches.
Grace says it was her brother who initially got her interested in 4-H.
“My brother joined a year before I did. He really started to enjoy it. He was getting to know people and making friends. He eventually was old enough to go to some of the bigger camps, like KYG. He came back and talked a lot about it, and I was like, ‘That sounds awesome,'” says Grace.
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The 4-H organization is for kids between 8 and 18. Its nationwide beginnings date back to 1902 in Clark County, Ohio, according to the National 4-H Council. While it’s deeply rooted in agriculture and livestock, 4-H offers a variety of projects tailored to kids with other interests, including STEM, healthy living and creative arts. Today, the organization serves about 6 million youth in 90,000 clubs throughout the U.S.
Grace says being involved in 4-H has taught her the value of hard work, communication and building relationships with people. She’s felt a deep sense of accomplishment in completing projects, regardless of the final score.
She’s planning to attend college and obtain a nursing degree and says her involvement in 4-H has given her skills that are good preparation for her career goals.
“Talking with multiple leaders and associates, getting to know people and learning how to get out of my comfort zone and take the initiative (are skills I’ve learned in 4-H that will help me in my career path),” she says.
The four other Roth Scholars selected through the U of I program are Ryan Povey, Savannah Hauser, Zia Izzard and Elena Bean. Roth Scholars from the U of I’s first year in 2025 were Ean Gauthie, Adri Hansen, Myka Hansen, Miles Palmer and Cayden Smith.
Other universities participating in the Roth Scholarship program include Auburn University in Alabama, Rutgers University in New Jersey, The Ohio State University and University of Minnesota. Five students were selected from each of those universities.
“The 4-H Leadership Academy gives young people the opportunity to explore complex issues, learn from experts and turn ideas into action,” Heather Elliott, Chief Development & Marketing Officer for the National 4-H Council, says in a news release. “Together with our land-grant university partners, we’re preparing Roth Scholars to be Beyond Ready by equipping them with the confidence, experiences and relationships they’ll carry into college, careers and a lifetime of leadership.”
WATCH OUR INTERVIEW WITH GRACE IN THE VIDEO ABOVE.
AG AT-A-GLANCE
Crapo pushes for overhaul of farmworker visa program to help Idaho agriculture
The following is a news release from U.S. Senator Mike Crapo’s office.
WASHINGTON, D.C.– U.S. Senator Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, joined a bicameral group of lawmakers in urging the federal agencies responsible for administering the H-2A agricultural guest worker program to make changes to improve its effectiveness.
In a letter to the secretaries of the U.S. Departments of Labor, State and Homeland Security, Crapo joined five additional Senators and 12 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives to outline specific administrative steps the agencies should take to address processing delays, regulatory gaps and structural barriers that place added strain on American agricultural, dairy and livestock producers already facing a difficult economic environment.
The letter recommends several administrative actions to address key concerns, including:
- Extending H-2A eligibility to year-round livestock, dairy, poultry and swine operations, which currently cannot access the program despite qualifying as agricultural labor under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
- Extending the H-2A filing window from 60-75 days to 120 days prior to a worker’s start date, contingent on the Department of State and DHS making corresponding adjustments to their own processing timelines.
- Establishing an expedited processing track at the Department of State for employers and workers with a demonstrated record of reliability.
U of I hosting symposium for fresh potato industry
The following is taken from a news release from the University of Idaho.
MOSCOW, Idaho – Registration is now open for University of Idaho Extension’s inaugural Fresh Pack Potato Symposium, which will bring together professionals from across the country who work in the fresh potato industry.
UI Extension received a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to launch the symposium, scheduled for Nov. 17-18 at Canyon Crest Event Center, 330 Canyon Crest Drive in Twin Falls.
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The symposium will address challenges facing the fresh market, which is often overlooked at research-oriented industry meetings. Most events focus on spuds that are raised to be processed into frozen products, which represent a much larger market segment. Fresh table stock potatoes, however, accounted for an estimated 23% of sales in the $4.8 billion U.S. potato market, according to U.S. Dept, of Agriculture data for the 2023 crop year.
Organizers hope to draw up to 150 industry professionals and expert presenters from the nation’s major fresh potato production regions.
Participants will attend presentations on the conference’s first day and will have the opportunity to tour area fresh-pack potato facilities on the second morning.
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