Foundation Announces 2024 Kent Lage Leadership Award winners

The Massachusetts 4-H Foundation has named its Kent Lage Leadership Award winners for 2024.

Margaret Turpel of Topsfield is the first-place winner of the 2024 Kent Lage Leadership Award, winning a scholarship of $1,500.

Margaret will attend Southern Methodist University and major in Political Science, with the goal of becoming a lobbyist.  Margaret has already impressively authored legislation as she researched, outlined, and testified in support of H.447, An Act Relative to Supporting Student Participation in 4-H Programs.

Margaret has participated in National 4-H Conference, National 4-H Congress, and the Ignite Summit, after which she helped plan a “Day of Ag-Cess” in 2023 to combat food insecurity. Margaret has  demonstrated her leadership skills with the 4-H Ambassadors and as president of the Rabbit & Cavy Crusaders Club. She has also won many blue ribbons in Visual Presentations.

Outside of 4-H, Margaret was nominated by her school to participate in Girls State. After scoring higher than nearly 200 other girls in a bar exam, she served  as a public defender and won an election for state auditor. Margaret has also been actively involved in her church as a student leader.

Madelyn Germain of Uxbridge is the second-place winner of the 2024 Kent Lage Leadership Award, earning a scholarship of $750. Madelyn, who is ranked first in her class at Norfolk County Agricultural High School (NCAHS), will matriculate at Western Colorado University, majoring in Environment & Sustainability.

Madelyn has served as the President of the Discovery 4-H Club. She won the top state award for her Visual Presentation for three years and served as a 4-H Ambassador. Madelyn also researched a community service project through Got Sneakers in which she organized a fundraiser for people to recycle their sneakers, then donated the proceeds to two different charities.

A talented runner, Madelyn has competed on both her school’s cross country and track teams. For cross country, she achieved first place in the Division 3A Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) championships and second place in the State’s MIAA division three championships. Madelyn has also been a part of NCAHS’s Peer Leadership Team and 2024 Class Council.