Provided

Nosa Akol during her 2014 summer internship with the Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture and Health at Cornell, where she served as a biological science aide.

Nosa Akol, a senior at Binghamton High School and leader in the CITIZEN U program at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County, has received the 2015 4-H Youth in Action Award, the organization’s highest youth honor.

Akol was selected from more than 80 candidates nationwide for driving positive community change, empowering peers and overcoming personal challenges.

Along with the award’s $10,000 scholarship, Akol will be honored at National 4-H Council’s sixth annual Legacy Awards April 23 in Washington, D.C.

“We could not be more proud to recognize Nosa as this year’s 4-H Youth in Action Award Winner,” said Jennifer Sirangelo, National 4-H Council president and CEO. “She exemplifies the life-changing impact of the 4-H experience and represents millions of confident 4-H’ers all over the U.S. who are empowered with the life skills to tackle personal and community challenges today and to thrive in their careers tomorrow.”

As a CITIZEN U teen leader, Akol guided a Great Pothole Solution Project to fix Binghamton city streets and a Taste the Rainbow nutrition education program to help local grade-schoolers adopt healthier lifestyles. At 4-H Career Explorations on Cornell’s campus, Akol developed her interest in world hunger and was named a delegate to the 2013 World Food Prize Global Youth Institute.

A native of South Sudan, Akol has researched micro-farming and its potential to empower women and young girls in her home country – ideas that she presented to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack at the USDA Borlaug Symposium in 2014. This spring, she will join with 4-H alumnus Lazarus Lynch, a 2012 graduate of New York City’s Food and Finance High School, a Cornell partner school, to lead a Hunger Banquet and Poverty Simulation to fight world hunger.

“I have had the unique opportunity of watching Nosa grow both personally and professionally and become a true agent of change,” said Kelly Mabee, CITIZEN U project coordinator and CCE of Broome County educator. “She continues to inspire other young people by demonstrating how to become effective community change agents.”

Akol joined CITIZEN U 4-H as a freshman in high school. In a video essay for the Youth in Action Award, she describes how the program nurtured her confidence and communication and leadership skills, allowing her to overcome years of bullying about her dark skin color.

“CITIZEN U 4-H turned all this around and became a light for good in my life,” Akol said. “The program taught me to accept myself for who I am, to feel good about myself and helped me to let go of all the hate and anger.”

CITIZEN U (short for “CITIZEN You” and “CITIZEN University”) promotes civic engagement and workforce development among underrepresented youth, building teen leaders who guide community projects focused on such issues as childhood obesity, food security, climate change and sustainable energy. Youth participants also gain job skills through paid internships aligned with CITIZEN U majors.

CITIZEN U is supported by Smith Lever funds, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Children, Youth and Families at Risk Program at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and New York 4-H at Cornell’s Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research.