by MEREDITH BAUER, UF/IFAS
Florida 4-H is proud to announce the posthumous induction of Alden Hilliker into the Florida 4-H Hall of Fame. Hilliker was a Florida 4-H state specialist who worked at the state headquarters on the University of Florida campus.
For many years, Hilliker led the annual Florida 4-H Congress, now called 4-H University, a weeklong leadership development event held at the University of Florida for teenage youth. During this keystone event, youth learn about educational and career opportunities, do community service activities, experience the college campus and network with peers from across the state.
Joy Cantrell Jordan, an associate professor emerita from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences’ family, youth and community sciences department, said he led the event with determination to make it a meaningful and memorable time for thousands of youth. He led the charge during an era of budget cuts, preserving the event’s core traditions for future 4-H’ers who now enjoy the fruits of his work.
“He went to great lengths to find the most resources to get the best speakers and entertainers for those large convening gatherings of teenagers and paid attention to the minute details, from conducting multiple contests to hosting foundation board members and donors,” she said. “This was no small task.”
Hilliker spent a significant amount of his time at Florida 4-H focused on staff and program development – the glue that keeps any good program firmly held together. This included professional development for UF/IFAS Extension county, regional and state staff. He supported faculty and staff in preparing annual work plans, reports of accomplishments and providing resources to support their life-shaping work and promotion to tenure status within the university system.
“Without this, there would not have been 4-H agents to provide the day-to-day operation of Florida 4-H,” Cantrell Jordan said.
Hilliker took his responsibility as an educator seriously and worked hard to make the programs under his charge engaging but also sustainable – so much so that many of them exist today and have inspired decades of graduates.
“Dr. Hilliker never forgot that the core mission of Extension is education and that Extension professionals are educators for people of all ages. And indeed, he was a tremendous teacher and mentor. He lived and breathed ‘learn by doing,’ and he gave Florida 4-H’ers tremendous opportunities to do and learn,” said Mary Gail Dufresne, a former state 4-H president who is now a communicator for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Dufresne said she found her degree, agricultural communications, at 4-H University. She’s not alone – the program boasts scores of successful graduates, such as former congressman and current Ducks Unlimited CEO Adam Putnam.
“The program Dr. Hilliker devoted himself to leading and protecting changed our lives and many thousands more,” Dufresne said.
He is among six inductees this year who will be honored at a ceremony on July 31 at the University of Florida’s campus in Gainesville.
Provided by UF/IFAS