Photo By Eric Pilgrim | Madison Williams stands in front of the wall of past Fort Knox winners in the Boys and...... read more read more
FORT KNOX, Ky. — Madison Williams loves agriculture. She loves public speaking. She also loves being a military child.
Her passions have combined to create two wins at this year’s Boys and Girls Clubs of America’s Military Youth of the Year competitions – passions she hopes to pass along.
“Every kid should do Youth of the Year each year because if gets you out of your shell,” said Williams, “and you get to talk about what you believe in and why.”
Williams and her parents arrived at Fort Knox in December 2024. She had heard of Boys and Girls Clubs of America before arriving but admitted that she didn’t know much about what the program offered.
She soon discovered Devers Middle School and Teen Center, where she and her mom bumped into Justin Musselman, a youth and teen lead at the center.
“My mom used to work here, and Justin was telling her about the club,” said Williams. “I like public speaking, so that’s why I started doing it.”
A high school senior, Williams said she is expecting to graduate from Fort Knox High School in the Class of 2027. She recently won local and state competitions and will compete at the regional competition in Chicago around mid-June.
“I’m hoping to win,” said Williams. “It would be so cool if I did. We’ll see.”
If she wins at regionals, she will compete at nationals in Washington, DC the first week of August. She is dialed into her focus areas.
“My interest in doing Youth of the Year was to give kids an advocating voice for public speaking and to want to tell their story,” Williams said. “But I also want to include why we should advocate for the Boys and Girls Club.”
Fort Knox competitors began practicing for the competitions in August 2025. As part of it, they are required to research, develop and write four essays on their chosen topic, as well as making a resume, cover letter and a speech, which they will present by memory in front of judges.
Early on, Williams already had an idea what her speech topic would be.
“My speech has to tie in to being a military kid,” said Williams, “so I’m advocating for agriculture among military kids because that’s also my main thing.”
Williams’ passion for agriculture started early in life – she grew up participating in 4H and Future Farmers of America and has raised and shown pigs at county fairs since she was 12.
For the competition, each participant has an adult mentor to help guide them through all the steps they will need to win. Williams’ mentor, Dwight Coble, came into the scene last year, bringing with him a treasure-trove of experience.
“I can’t even count how many times I’ve been a mentor. I was the mentor in 2013 when we had the Military Youth of the Year,” said Coble. “I have been out of it a little bit so I was searching for someone to mentor because I had some ideas which they could turn into a speech.
“That’s what I did; I gave her three or four topic ideas, and she ran with it and created an excellent speech.”
Some of the work in the beginning wasn’t too difficult, Williams said, but other areas were a lot more challenging.
“I did public speaking with FFA, so it didn’t take me that long to memorize my speech,” said Williams. “But the other stuff – it took forever. It took me like five to six months to get all of it together.”
Williams acknowledges that agriculture is a great topic for military children because they rarely get an opportunity to experience farm life.
“My whole story is being a military kid and advocating for agriculture because military kids don’t really know about it,” said Williams. “It’s sad, and they need to know. We need more people supporting farms.”
The connection to farming came from her grandparents and an uncle, who grew up on a farm. Because of their love for farming, she began to show pigs.
Nakita Romeo, director of Devers, said Williams is already having a big impact on the center.
“Due to her passion for agriculture, we are actually starting a new club this school year,” said Romeo. “It’s an ag club, so we’re going to touch on everything agriculture. She’s creating the lesson plans and giving the employee who’s in charge of that club all the ideas about what we want to do.
“We can push that passion into other youth who may not know that they’re going to be passionate about it too.”
While Williams focuses on getting through Fort Knox High School and Devers this school year, she is already focused on the way ahead. Possible first stop: a two-year school in Tennessee. After that?
“I’m thinking about going to Murray State—” voted the Kentucky Association of Agricultural Educators’ top-rated ag school in Kentucky. “I did horse judging over there, and their agriculture program is amazing!”
One step at a time. First, Chicago…
| Date Taken: | 05.28.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 05.28.2026 09:07 |
| Story ID: | 566295 |
| Location: | FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, US |
| Web Views: | 17 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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