It has been a great few months at the OSU Extension office! Over my time here I have been able to help at a variety of local events. Some of my favorites include the county fair, corn festival, 4-H youth camp, and a water cycle camp. I also had the opportunity to help teach the Spanish classes hosted at our office building. It was fun to see kids progress and be able to help them improve. Soon, I look forward to returning to school and resuming my studies. I will be able to apply some of the things I learned over the summer as a research assistant to an engineer working in field crops, which will be very exciting. Now that I know there are so many more community events than I knew about, I will also try to participate in more of them.
I really loved working here over the summer! One of the highlights of my time as an intern was having the chance to organize and figure out our Makerspace. I spent a lot of time recalibrating and setting up the machines, as well as making sure that people would be able to use them in the future. I was even able to help make things that my coworkers would use in activities that they run. As I mentioned before, I also really liked the community aspect of the job. Working outside was always fun, as was seeing all the community activities come together. Although it was difficult to relate to people who had been part of 4-H their whole lives, I found that the more time I spent around them the more I was able to find enjoyment in what they saw too.
Overall, I feel like my time here has allowed me to learn how to have strong community outreach, as well as helped me learn how to better plan activities. It also helped me understand more of what goes on in the agricultural community around us and has given me a greater appreciation for it. In the future, I will know how to help people engage in the community around them and consider more fully the implications of my work in a larger sense.
– Zach Richards