Arkansas 4-H team to test knowledge of consumer rights, personal finance at National LifeSmarts Championship in April

April 1, 2026

By Rebekah Hall
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

Fast Facts

• Benton County 4-H LifeSmarts team heading to nationals
• National LifeSmarts Championship is April 15-18 in Orlando, Florida
• LifeSmarts is competition, education program of the National Consumers League

(1,031 words)

Download photo of Benton County 4-H team

LITTLE ROCK — For Arkansas 4-H member Brooklyn Luedecke, the LifeSmarts program teaches “the things that school doesn’t really teach you, giving you everything you need to know going into the adult world,” she said.

NATIONALS BOUND — The Benton County 4-H LifeSmarts team will represent Arkansas at the 2026 National LifeSmarts Championship, held April 15-18 in Orlando, Florida. From left to right: Belvia Powers, Kinley Elkinton, Brooklyn Luedecke, Kate Campbell and Rebekah Brown. (UADA photo.) 

Luedecke, 18, is one of five members of the Benton County 4-H varsity team that will represent Arkansas at the 2026 National LifeSmarts Championship, held April 15-18 in Orlando, Florida. The team has qualified for the national competition each year since the county began participating in LifeSmarts in 2024.

LifeSmarts is a competition and education program of the National Consumers League, a consumer advocacy organization. Jessica Street, Benton County extension 4-H agent for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said LifeSmarts offers a quiz bowl-style competition that tests students on their knowledge of five key topic areas: consumer rights and responsibilities, the environment, health and safety, personal finance and technology.

“It teaches them life skills they need to know to be informed consumers as adults,” Street said. “It works great with our 4-H projects, because teaching life skills is what we’re all about. It’s a great fit for some of our food and nutrition and health and safety projects, as well as consumer economics-type projects.”

Currently, Benton County 4-H is the only Arkansas 4-H team that participates in the LifeSmarts program, but Street said she hopes the competition will become more popular among 4-H groups and grow large enough for its own state contest.

Luedecke has been a member of the Benton County 4-H LifeSmarts team since its inception and said the personal finance topic has been the most helpful in preparing her for life after graduation.

“I’m starting college this fall, so learning how to budget my money and learning about loans has really helped me,” Luedecke said. “I feel like it’s given me a different perspective going into college on how I’m going to manage my money and what I’m going to do with my scholarship funds.”

Jacie Luedecke, the team’s volunteer assistant coach and Brooklyn’s mother, said that each year, team members are assigned one of the key topic areas to study individually, helping to divide up the large swath of information covered by the competition.

Rebekah Brown, 16, was assigned the health and safety topic during her first year on the LifeSmarts team.

“I think psychology is a really interesting career path, and through studying the health and safety category, I’ve been learning more about how your brain functions, how sleep impacts how you work, and it’s so interesting to me,” Brown said. “Learning about this through LifeSmarts has been a lot of fun.”

Preparing for nationals

LifeSmarts varsity teams, open to students in grades 9-12, begin the competition season with an online qualifying session to achieve the highest final score. Street said that the Benton County 4-H team was the only team in Arkansas to qualify for the state championship, making them the automatic state varsity champs.

Street said that last year, the team placed sixth in the country. To prepare for the 2026 competition, Brooklyn Luedecke said the team meets regularly to practice using buzzers for the speed question rounds, and the students study individually using flashcards and quizzes.

Brooklyn Luedecke said the National LifeSmarts Championship “does a great job of creating a fun environment.”

“There is less intense pressure, which makes my head clearer so I can think better,” she said. “I do believe that my team and I, we do still push ourselves, but we’re going into it knowing that we’re going to be happy either way, and we’re going to leave with new friends.”

Brown said she is looking forward to her first experience at the national competition.

“I’m really excited to meet people from all across the country because I love meeting new people,” Brown said. “I’m a little nervous because it’s my first time doing it, but I know overall it’ll be amazing.

“I really hope to do this again next year,” she said. “The more you do it, the more you learn.”

Leadership and life lessons

Brooklyn Luedecke was chosen to serve on the LifeSmarts Engagement Advisory Panel, or LEAP, this year, the student advisory board that plans the national competition. Along with peers from around the country, she has helped plan event programming, design merchandise, secure sponsors and mentor teams that are new to the competition.

Brooklyn Luedecke said this experience, along with serving on the Benton County 4-H team, has helped her grow as a leader.

“I’ve gotten to see my team members gain confidence and enjoy this program as much as I have,” she said. “I can see that we’ve been planting the seed in them, and they’re going to continue to do it and keep learning more.

“It’s been great for me personally,” she said. “Developing as team captain taught me more leadership skills and more responsibility, and I’ve enjoyed that.”

In the fall, Brooklyn Luedecke will start school at Northwest Arkansas Community College, where she plans to pursue a nursing degree. As the winner of the LifeSmarts 2026 Making Life Easier Scholarship, a partnership with Toyota Financial Services, she will receive a renewable $7,500 scholarship per academic year.

“I know nursing school will be a challenge, and I’m ready for that,” she said. “LifeSmarts has made me more willing to just jump in and try it. I can do this — I can go and be quizzed on health and safety on the national level. I can try nursing school.”

Jacie Luedecke said the LifeSmarts program is a great fit for her family.

“I homeschool my kids, so whenever I first learned about this program, I thought, ‘This is amazing,’” she said. “There are so many times being their mom that I don’t think about actually teaching some of those skills, we just live it.

“We’re preparing Brooklyn to go out into the world on her own, and I see so many of these life skills that have come up in her day-to-day life,” she said. “And she’ll always look at me and smile and say, ‘Mom, LifeSmarts!’ It’s been great.”

Learn more about Arkansas 4-H on the Cooperative Extension Service website and learn more about the LifeSmarts program at lifesmarts.org.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit uada.edu. To learn more about ag and food research in Arkansas, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station at aaes.uada.edu.

About the Division of Agriculture

The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system. 

The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three campuses.  

Pursuant to 7 CFR § 15.3, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services (including employment) without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, sexual preference, pregnancy or any other legally protected status, and is an equal opportunity institution.

# # #

Media Contact:
Rebekah Hall 
rkhall@uada.edu  
501-671-2061