The 4-H program provides youth with opportunities for the development of leadership skills that will be of use in postsecondary and professional contexts beyond their time in 4-H. State-level leadership opportunities like state officer and ambassador programs are long-standing fixtures of 4-H programs nationally. Scholarship behind the teaching and learning of leadership in 4-H is limited and often relegated to evaluation findings relative to program satisfaction and basic knowledge gain. A review of the Extension and leadership literature reveals a dearth in publications regarding the inputs, best practices, and high impact experiences afforded youth in state-level 4-H leadership programs. The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore the state-level leadership experiences afforded to youth within 4-H. Our study’s central question was, how is leadership developed among youth in 4-H state-level positions? To answer this question, our study was guided by two research goals: 1) Delineate the leadership educational inputs typically ascribed to 4-H youth state-level leadership experiences, and 2) describe the developmental disposition of these experiences. This study employed in-depth semi-structured interviews of ten 4-H professionals in charge of state-level leadership opportunities across the Southeastern United States. Data collected from interviews was analyzed with open and axial coding from which three themes for each research goal were identified. Common inputs across these experiences included pre-service trainings, personality assessments, and train-the-trainer opportunities. Additionally, the disposition of these experiences was generally grounded in principles of shared power, college and career readiness, and capacity building. Recommendations include identifying leadership theories and models felicitous with program goals and committing to measuring those leadership constructs in concert with program evaluation metrics. Additionally, disseminating the best practices for these leadership development experiences across the profession will enrich leadership education within the 4-H program while also contributing to the Extension and leadership literature.