August « 2022 « OSU Extension Internship Program

Hi, my name is Anahi (she/her/hers) and I am working for OSU Extension in Washington County this summer. In a couple of weeks, I’ll be heading back to college to start my sophomore year. I feel nostalgic for my time working with the team in the Washington County Extension Office, as time has flown by. Every event I attended provided me with new learning opportunities, from the work of our community leaders to the curiosity of the youth I mentored. 

I could not have asked for a better team, one full of compassionate and dedicated individuals who work to have an impact on the people in the county. As I reflect on my final weeks, I can only acknowledge how fortunate I was to have the privilege of joining the team.  As an Extension intern, I had the opportunity to be part of various community events. I was at free lunch sites throughout summer with a community organization, Operation H.O.P.E., to hand out science-activity bags. My days were filled with joy when I would softly hear “thank you” from every kid while they hurried to open up those bags. 

Brown gift bags with papers inside that say Bees of Oregon — Science activity bags ready for Operation H.O.P.E.

On the days I spent with the 4-H Youth Environmental Educators (YEE) I mostly sat back and observed their work to learn as much as I could from them, their maturity, and their commitment to their projects. I would like to give a special thank you to the YEEs! All 10 kids brought fun to everything we did and being there to assist their adventures was a privilege. To have been part of their impact at Blue Lake Regional Park in Fairview and their community garden is beyond rewarding. Their dedication is something I will always admire. I spent days at the park with them and supported their planning days, learning and being mesmerized by their passion for everything they did. 

I also worked with Juntos, an Extension Open Campus program that quickly became incredibly significant to me. Juntos allowed me to share my experiences as a first-generation Latina student in a foreign country. I saw myself in every student I met, and I felt my family’s presence through every parent attending the meetings. Not only did I have the gift to share my story in order to inspire, but I did so alongside a hardworking leader and role model, my internship supervisor Ezequiel Lopez-Reyes. I can only hope that this summer is just the beginning of my time with Juntos.

Extension expanded my passion for serving the community. It has been an experience that taught me the importance of curiosity, how much knowledge you can be gifted with by serving others, and that the resources available to us can always be shared to uplift others. To OSU Extension, thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to read about my personal Extension internship experience.

Hey there, my name is Molly Benjamin, and I am currently working with the OSU Extension SNAP-Ed program in the OSU Extension office in Eugene. I live here full-time, and I am close to receiving my bachelor’s degree in family and human services from the University of Oregon. I have always been passionate about working with people, but in the last two years I have found a niche that I quite love: cooking, food and nutritional education.

Growing up, cooking has always been close to my heart. My mom went to culinary school and she now runs a catering company, so I was often around to learn and help. Over the years, my interest in cooking has grown exponentially, and I am so thankful that she has gifted me an appreciation for fresh food and taught me just how nourishing it can be to make your own meals. I was much pickier than the kids I have been working with this summer, however. From the ages of 9-16 I turned my nose at things like raw onions, beets and tomatoes. I have been so pleasantly surprised to see how willing the kids have been to try new foods. I think that growing your appreciation for delicious, fresh veggies can open a whole new world of food and remove the negative connotations that children may have with vegetables in particular.

Vegetables in paper containers on a table. — Preparing fresh vegetables to make Farmers Market Salsa at the Bethel Farm Summer Camp.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP-Ed) has truly been a perfect opportunity to get real-world experience in teaching cooking lessons and the importance of eating a diverse and nutritious diet. So far, my fellow intern Ivan Gonzales and I have worked for a few weeks at the Bethel Farm Summer Camp, and I recently finished teaching at Riverbend Elementary School in Springfield. I loved the opportunity to teach knife skills, measuring techniques, and food etiquette because I believe they are lifetime skills. After working at the Bethel Farm Summer Camp, the leader Jessica told us that multiple parents had reported that their kids showed more interest in cooking and trying new foods. That alone was so gratifying to hear!

I loved working with Extension this summer, and I hope to find some good ideas for next year’s interns!

Hi again. I hope everyone’s summer has been going great. I am here to give you an update on what I have been doing in the OSU Extension office in Umatilla County. These past few weeks have been full of activities and fun. I had my Camp Cloverbud and it went great! We had 20 kids show up and seven volunteers. All the kids enjoyed the five activities I planned out and the snacks. They painted on canvas, made bird houses, planted some herbs, tie-dyed socks, read the book “Right This Very Minute” and played a game. I loved being involved in this camp and planning the activities for the kids to do. It was great with no hiccups and everyone went home with a smile on their face.

A woman stands behind children involved in an outdoor project — Bobbie Ann Sharp at Camp Cloverbud.

For the upcoming Umatilla County Fair we are setting up the 4-H building to display each member’s project to the public. I have been helping plan out what we will do for our kids’ corner. This has been difficult trying to get responses from volunteers and have them plan the days to be at the corner to do an activity with kids who pass by. I have come up with a scavenger hunt that can be done by the kids as they are walking around looking at 4-H members’ projects.

We had the dog show that I helped with. I took photos and helped the judges set up the ring. It was great to see how much joy the judges got from watching the kids show and then the kids smile when they have completed their time in the ring. I am in the last two weeks of my internship but these two weeks are going to be crazy! We are doing the Fashion Revue this week and then next week is the county fair so there will be no shortage of something that needs to be done. Thank you for reading and wish me good luck for the weeks to come.

Hi, I am Perla Gutierrez, and I am on my last two weeks of my summer internship in Tillamook County. I have been a part of a lot of different projects with Open Campus/Juntos throughout this summer, including June Dairy Parade, Family Nights and Juntos Afuera. The whole summer I was working closely with high school Spanish-speaking students and their families, providing a safe environment with activities across Tillamook County. 

Perla Gutierrez (standing) leads an activity with students.

The Juntos Afuera summer program for high school students included teaching them how to garden, go hiking on several trails, exploring sea life, learning about ancient plants, and kayaking, which was all the students’ favorite, including mine. Each week was focused on something different so I had a different activity that I had to lead, including painting, nature journaling and games to get to know everyone. On the days in which there was no camp, I was preparing for the following week with all the activities and creating the lesson plan for how the day would go. Sometimes that included buying some things at the store to be ready or planning our lesson plans several times until they were perfect. While leading each day in camp I got to know each student and create a bond with all of them. 

We also created events for the whole family to enjoy a day of learning and having fun with other families in the county. One was at Hydrangea Ranch in Tillamook County, where everyone was welcome. We had live music, food, games and some activities involving what we have done in Juntos Afuera this summer. In about a week, we have our second Family Day on the beach. There will be live music and entertainment, with the main event being an Ocean Blessing Ceremony. The planning behind each Family Night/Day is hard because we try to provide helpful resources for the families but also have to accommodate everyone involved in these events. We are about a week away from our event and we are still figuring out some logistics for this day to be perfect. Family Nights are created to show families that there are resources and people that want to help each student reach their goals, and that they can still celebrate and be proud of their culture. 

A group of 13 people hold potted plants — Showing off healthy plants and decorated pots at Juntos Afuera.

With my internship coming to an end, I have my final projects I am helping with, one of those is a STEM Camp. This camp is for incoming eighth-graders, in which will be working in an area I am not familiar with so it will be a learning experience. This internship has been an amazing and challenging opportunity, working with students close to my age, learning how to create a fun environment for them but also remember what we want them to get out of the whole program. I know I have had to think about certain topics in a different mindset which I know will influence my decisions in the future and I am grateful for everything this experience has taught me.

My name is Ivan Gonzales, and I am an intern this summer in the OSU Extension SNAP-Ed program in the Extension office in Lane County. I am majoring in family human services at the University of Oregon in Eugene. I am 21 and have recently discovered a passion for healthy living. I love getting my daily physical activity though a variety of different activities and I even teach physical education through the YMCA. I have been a vegetarian for about 10 years for health, ethical, and environmental reasons.

Two people standing in the shade at an outdoor work station — Ivan Gonzalez (left) and fellow intern Molly Benjamin.

There are very clear expectations about how to present and perform at this internship. There were many online training sessions to prepare us, as well. My fellow Extension intern Molly Benjamin and I have taught three groups of kids three different recipes at the Bethel Farm Summer Camp in Eugene. The recipes were fresh garden salsa, vegetable wontons, and smoothies with a super-secret vegetable ingredient. Bethel Farm Summer Camp is an amazing experience that is completely free for Bethel School District students entering fourth and fifth grades. At the camp they have cooking, gardening, beekeeping, arts and crafts and nature exploration. All of the kids were taught measuring skills, knife skills and kitchen safety.

After teaching at the camp we transitioned to teaching cooking at Riverbend Elementary School in Springfield. We had two sessions of kindergartners at Riverbend and then incoming fourth-graders. The kindergarteners learned measuring skills and handwashing skills with a trail mix recipe while the fourth-graders learned knife skills and other basic kitchen skills with the fresh garden salsa recipe.

We are now transitioning away from teaching cooking and more into office and community work. The office work mainly consists of organizing and planning for our community work. We are planning to go to some local food banks and hand out samples of some of Extension Food Hero zucchini recipes and give information about healthy eating and answer any other questions individuals may have. I am excited to see what other community programs we will get involved in as well such as farmers markets and food donation sites.

A man records a boy telling a story — Video storytelling campers doing interviews at Sorosis Park in The Dalles.

Wasco County was created by the Oregon Territorial Legislature in 1854 and and at one time was the largest county in the United States –bigger than present-day Oregon. Today, it can still seem very old at times. Our fair structure has not changed in the time that I have been alive–until this year. One of the biggest tasks that I have gotten under this internship program is to redesign Wasco County Fair’s livestock judging contest and turn it into a Skill-A-Thon. The Extension office acquired a full set of educational posters and equipment from the Ohio State University Extension Service for each species at the Wasco County Fair. It has been my job to come up with a junior level knowledge test on all that material. We are starting at a junior level because there has not been a contest like this in Wasco County for at least 15 years and we do not want to overwhelm our 4-H and FFA kids.

This was a much larger undertaking than I originally anticipated it being. I have spent six days working on the contest already and I will need a few more still to see it through to completion. One of the greatest obstacles for this project is that there are species of animals that I know almost nothing about. I raise beef and swine at home, so those project areas come fairly easily, but I have had to learn more about sheep, goats, rabbits, cavy and poultry in the last week than I have in the last nine years of 4-H. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will be able to participate in the Skill-A-Thon as I would have an unfair advantage being the one that made it, but I hope that it makes kids realize that there is always more to learn about their animals.

One reason that the Skill-A-Thon curriculum has taken so long to make was that our Video Storytelling Camp was held last week. We gave our nine kids cameras and a computer with video editing software and we guided them through how to properly record, edit and render videos. Each of the videos were entirely unique and had the creative genius of each kid behind them. They may not have been movie quality, but for some of the fourth-graders it was their first time using a computer with a mouse. They went from learning something totally new to having a fully produced video within three days. It was immensely rewarding to see the satisfaction on the kids’ faces as we played each of their videos at the end of the camp.

Wasco County Fair is closing in, with only two weeks to go. We are getting prepared to move the Extension office out to the fairgrounds for when fair begins. Even though I am still a 4-H member it will be a lot different this year as I will be more involved in operating fair as an intern. I am looking forward to moving animals in on Aug. 17and making the most of my last year in 4-H!

OSU Extension Internship Program

Monthly Archives: August 2022

Working in Extension expanded my passion for serving the community

Passing on my appreciation for fresh and nutritional food through SNAP-Ed

Camp Cloverbud was a success and fair is around the corner

Internship will end with STEM Camp, Juntos Afuera Family Night

Teaching healthy eating to kids in Lane County

Helping update the Wasco County Fair experience for 4-Hlivestock members

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