April 2026
Throughout her career at a high school with no ag program, Musiq Williams has been tested on distinguishing beneficial bugs from agricultural pests, how the farm-to-fork chain feeds us, and on reading nutrition labels.
She has also learned parliamentary procedure, toured farms, attended Farm Bureau meetings, and delivered a speech about how the Florida Farm Bureau connects youth with the agriculture industry.
The experience has helped transform a 7th-grader who lived in a neighborhood where she couldn’t have livestock into the state reporter on the Florida 4-H State Council. She is now a graduating senior with aspirations to attend a land-grant university and then embark on a career in poultry science or agricultural policy.
More than ever, Florida agriculture needs the classic land-grant alliance of academia, industry and government to develop more future agriculture professionals like Musiq as our work force ages.
Work Ready Florida is how that three-way partnership helped Musiq and is providing opportunities for so many others.
UF/IFAS exposes youth to agriculture through 4-H. The Farm Bureau gives youth the opportunity to signal to employers that they’re work ready through competitions and certification exams. The USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture commissions studies that document the need for far more college graduates with agriculture and natural resources majors and funds Work Ready Florida to replenish our aging agricultural workforce.
In delivering a speech to convince judges that the Voice of Agriculture had prepared her to be a voice for agriculture, she convinced herself. She gathered up the lessons she’d learned in formal monthly educational webinars and in informal conversations with Farm Bureau legends such as Eva Webb and Keith Wedgworth, and she decided to run for state 4-H council. She is now looking at agriculture-related majors as she applies to universities.
I’m thankful for the partnership that makes it possible for us to offer such great learning opportunities to Musiq and her peers. In fact, I plan to personally thank NIFA Director Jaye Hamby for his continuing support for 4-H (and his service as an ex-officio member of the national 4-H board) when he visits in April. When he accepted my invitation, he made only two requests regarding the itinerary – to visit with citrus growers and to get a 4-H update from our statewide program leader Stacy Ellison.
Work Ready was Musiq’s entry into 4-H. It also shaped her future goals.
What she says was most important, though, was not the content but the relationships. Work Ready and 4-H gave her a learning space, Musiq says, to absorb new ideas, ask questions, and grow with the guidance of adults who care about her goals and aspirations.
By J. Scott Angle
[email protected]
@IFAS_VP
Dr. Scott Angle is the University of Florida’s Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources and leader of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).