Jackson County « OSU Extension Internship Program

A tall, leafy plant rises from a black container. — A pear tree that was uprooted for my pear disease diagnosis project. I replanted it with little hope it would survive, but seeing it overcome its struggles filled me with happiness.
Photo credit: Jasmin Lama

Hello, I’m Jasmin Lama. I just finished my summer internship at Southern Oregon’s Research and Extension Center in Jackson County. I can genuinely say that it was one of the best experiences of my life. I learned so much about plant pathology, along with making unforgettable memories.

Focusing on my projects was one of the aspects of my internship that I enjoyed the most. As I mentioned in my last blog, my major project was to identify the cause of why pear trees in a Southern Oregon orchard were dying. Preparing and plating these pear tree samples took many hours of dedicated hard work. After observing them for 2 weeks, I concluded that Diaporthe eres was the causal agent. I researched this species extensively and worked hard on the lab report I submitted after my internship. For about 2 weeks, I participated in processing hundreds of frozen samples for our lab. This took up most of my days, but I gained new skills and had much fun. It gave me a great sense of accomplishment once I finished. Participating in pear shoot blight measurements was also a highlight of my internship. Observing the hemp plants for my hemp management project was also a big part of my internship. Watching them prosper, consistently watering and giving them their designated treatment was one of my favorite parts this summer.

This was an incredible experience. I want to thank the amazing mentors who made it all possible. Anupa Gaire, Joseph DeShields, and especially Achala KC, my supervisor, were like walking encyclopedias of plant pathology knowledge. They helped me learn way more than I ever thought was possible. I am so grateful for their support in the plant pathology lab.

Presently, I have transitioned into my junior year of high school. This experience has enriched my understanding and left a lasting mark personally and intellectually. Monthly meetings provided insight into the ongoing projects of my mentors, amplifying my appreciation for the field. Field trips and meeting new people from all over the county added depth to my experience. However, the most memorable experience was our road trip to Woodhall Vineyards just outside of Corvallis. It was an incredible experience being able to work in such a large vineyard and I will never forget it.

Approaching this new academic year, I’ve gotten tanner thanks to all the sunshine. More importantly, I’m grateful for the knowledge I gained from this internship. I hope to return soon. It was an amazing experience that I will cherish forever. I am excited to use the skills and knowledge I gained to positively impact the future.

Rows of young hemp plants on black weed barrier. — Hemp plants when they were first planted two months ago.
Photo credit: Aayusha Subedi

Hello! I am Aayusha Subedi from the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center (SOREC) here in Jackson County. This summer has gone by in the blink of an eye, and I cannot believe I am at the end of my internship. Over the past two months, I have learned many new things and have created many lasting memories.

In mid-July I prepped over 150-plus grapevine samples for DNA extraction for Grapevine Red Blotch Virus detection. During this time, I also collected pear tree samples for my pear disease diagnosis project. I prepped and plated samples for the experiment, which was to identify why the pear trees were dying in the first place. I had been tasked to write a lab report on this experiment and its outcomes. In August, I worked on a hemp disease management trial. For this trial, I planted 60 hemp plants and monitored them for a month, observing them for any symptoms. I also went to a hemp farm multiple times this summer because a similar experiment was being conducted there as well. Towards the end of this internship, I worked on completing my report.

Rows of hemp plants. — Hemp plants now.
Photo credit: Anupa Gaire

Two highlights from this summer as an intern were picking blackberries with other interns and going on a treehopper collection excursion. The treehopper collecting was surprisingly fun; however, they are hard critters to catch (like the name suggests they like to hop away a lot). They were being collected as a part of a Grapevine red blotch virus detection experiment. I also enjoyed walking around the garden located close by.

I am incredibly grateful for being able to take part in this program. Going into this position I was unsure about what to expect. One main thing I have learned a lot about is Grapevine red blotch virus and its effects on grapevines. This experience also taught me a lot about standard lab procedures and how to engage with others in a laboratory setting.

Now that I have completed my time here as an intern, I want to give my thanks to my wonderful supervisor Achala KC. I want to thank her for allowing me to work in her lab and for inviting me into the field of plant pathology. I would like to thank the amazing people who work at the SOREC, such as Anupa Gaire and Joey Deshields for helping me around the lab. I am truly thankful to have been able to receive this opportunity this year. This is an experience that will remain with me in the future. I hope to be able to come back and do this again. Once again thank you to everyone who helped make this internship and summer an incredible experience!

Two people wearing mud boots stand at the edge of a field — Jasmin Lama and Aayusha Subedi (right) administering various fungicides to hemp plants on a local farm.
Photo credit: Achala KC

Hello, my name is Aayusha Subedi, and I am an Oregon State University Extension Service intern in Jackson County. I am a high school junior, and this is my first year working as an Extension intern. I am working in a plant pathology lab at the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center in Central Point, Ore. with Achala KC, an Extension plant pathologist and assistant professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences, and her team. I am extremely excited to be taking part in this amazing opportunity. I am looking forward to learning about plant pathology research and exploring the commercial fields this summer.

Four people stand in front of a sunny vineyard. — Left to right, Aayusha Subedi, Jasmin Lama, Anupa Gaire, and Achala KC at the Woodhall vineyards in Monroe, OR.
Photo Credit: Aayusha Subedi

Throughout this internship, I will be working with another intern, Jasmin Lama. We will be conducting several projects, including pear disease diagnosis, hemp disease management, and grapevine red blotch virus (GRBV) detection. Within the first week, we started testing some treatments for hemp at a local farm. Furthermore, I was able to attend a OSU Extension Southern Oregon Pear Field Day, an Extension event organized by KC on July 6, where the participants were able to learn about all the different ways local and commercial farms operate and combat diseases such as fire blight on pears. My favorite part of this day was to tour the TreeTop processing factory in Medford. It was amazing to witness the fruit-processing journey and visit the farms in the community. On Friday July 7, we traveled to the Woodhall vineyard in Monroe, Ore., to collect 176 samples for grapevine trunk disease management research. A graduate research assistant, Anupa Gaire, is conducting a study as a part of her master’s program. It has been a unique experience helping her with the extensive process of collecting, processing and plating samples.

I am grateful to be an OSU Extension Intern and I cannot wait to learn and help this summer!

A cross section of a pear tree root. — Observing the root of a pear tree for symptoms.
Photo credit: Aayusha Subedi

Hello, I am Jasmin Lama, OSU Extension Service’s intern this summer in Jackson County. I am an upcoming junior in high school, and this experience is surreal, especially being able to work in the plant pathology lab in the OSU Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center in Central Point. I will be working alongside another intern, Aayusha Subedi; our supervisor Achala KC; and OSU graduate research assistant, Anupa Gaire. I’m very enthusiastic about this internship as this area of science is something I’ve always been interested in.

This summer, I’ll be working and assisting on three projects. My main project is disease diagnosis on pears, where we collected samples of dead, live and intermediate pear trees and plated them to observe what caused the pear trees to die. Towards the end of the internship, we are to complete a lab report on this project. Last week, I participated in a Pear Field Day where we went throughout the county and learned about other researchers and their processes. For example, our center expanded on the research that fire blight causes to pear trees and the process of treating it other than antibiotics. We even got the opportunity to visit Tree Top’s factory! It was incredible to see the processing of fruit.

Looking down rows of grapevines across a valley toward the trees. — The view from OSU’s Woodhall Vineyard in Monroe, Oregon.
Photo credit: Jasmin Lama.

The second project is grapevine red blotch virus (GRBV) detection in which we will be processing grapevine samples to assist with GRBV detection using molecular tools such as DNA extraction and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The third project is hemp management in which we will be assisting a neighboring hemp farmer. There are five treatments we are testing over 45 plants in one field and 60 plants in another. We will also be assisting Anupa Gaire on her grapevine trunk disease management research. Up to this point, we have collected samples from two different fields. On July 7, we traveled to the Woodhall Vineyard located outside of Corvallis and collected 176 samples that were treated with different fungicides to test the efficacy of products to manage the disease.

I am so excited to see what I will learn more throughout this internship and continue my projects. Even though it has only been a few weeks, I have learned so much already and I’m thrilled to see what the next month brings!

Hi guys, I’m Briauna and I interned with the OSU Extension Groundwater Protection and Education Program in Benton County. As I wrap up my summer internship I looked back and realized how fast it all went. It seems like I just started this internship and as I write this blog post it is my last full week. Over the summer I was able to learn so many new things through the Well Water Program and other programs within Extension. In June we prepared for all the nitrate screenings we had planned for the summer. It consisted of a lot of cutting and stamping postcards, sending out press releases, and advertising through social media.

A woman crouches down to pick blueberries to collect in a white bucket. — Briauna Herrick picking blueberries on a farm visit.

Throughout the summer I worked on a handful of different projects, one of them being research on county websites for well and septic information and another was working on the newsletter archives in the Extension Small Farms Program website. I also got to help with the Be Well project based in Jackson County. We sent out a lot of letters that we stuffed, sealed and stamped. I am really surprised I made it through the summer without getting a paper cut! Once the clinics started it just kept getting busier from there. In between the busyness of nitrate screenings, I had the opportunity to go to Blueberry Field Day at the OSU North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora to learn more about the research being done there. I also helped at county fairs, and I even got to go on a farm visit with Lane County’s small farms Extension agent, Mellissa Fery.

I enjoyed getting to visit many different towns in the Willamette Valley where we held our screenings–I don’t think I have driven up and down I-5 so much in a span of three months. It was fun getting to spend a few hours in towns I hadn’t been to before and getting to know some of the people in the communities. Later this week I am holding a nitrate screening at my family’s farm in Springfield. I have been looking forward to testing water in the area I grew up in and getting to share what I have learned with my family, friends and close neighbors.

Over the course of my internship, I got to meet a lot of people and enjoyed learning from their experiences. Everyone I met involved with Extension was kind and always welcoming. I enjoyed working with Chrissy, Kelci, and Ahad over the summer and was able to learn from all of them. I am thankful for this opportunity to work with Extension and for everything I have learned over the past few months. Thank you to the people I met along the way and for this opportunity to grow.

Hi, my name is Nora Graham, and this is my last blog post for the summer. As my time interning at the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center with OSU comes close to its conclusion, I thought I would share what a routine week looks like for me during my entomology internship.

I’m currently splitting my time between two researchers’ projects, and so on Mondays and Fridays I look for corn earworm larvae and eggs on hemp plants in Jackson County, as well as working towards my presentation and research paper I’ll be submitting for a separate OSU internship.

A person is standing in a field of tall hemp plants. — Nora Graham inspects hemp for corn earworm eggs.

On Tuesdays through Thursdays, I help with a wide variety of entomology tasks for pear and grape crops. Some of these weekly tasks include looking for treehoppers on grapevines that could potentially carry grapevine red blotch virus. We check coddling moth traps put up in pear orchards and count the number of male and female moths. We also collect and transfer earwigs from a peach orchard and put them in a pear orchard to see if they can act as a predator for pear psylla and two-spotted spider mites since they’re not able to do damage to pear crops.

It has been an incredible experience getting to work on so many diverse entomology projects. I had the opportunity to see how different orchards and vineyards operate, as well as getting to interact with a lot of knowledgeable people.

Hi! My name is Anna Ehlers and I’m an OSU Extension summer intern at the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center (SOREC) in Jackson County. I am an Oregon State University student majoring in horticulture with a minor in biological data science. I am working with my supervisor Lena Hosking, 4-H program coordinator in Jackson County.

A woman sits cross legged on the floor in front of a horticulture display — Anna Ehlers with her 4-H horticulture display and materials.

I am finishing up my last week at my internship and things have been less chaotic since we finished working at the fair.

Lately I have been working on a horticulture curriculum for future 4-H camps or day projects. I have found many fun example curricula online and in our project books. Not only am I searching for projects, but I am also editing and revising them to better fit our desired curriculum. Our curriculum has a set of learning objectives that should be incorporated into each project, so revising the projects to improve teaching methods are needed.

In addition to searching for projects, I have to test them out. By testing the projects, I can improve them to make instructions clearer for students or instructors reading through the curriculum. I can identify issues or miscommunication found in the instructions and modify them. This can clear up any confusion before the projects have begun. We also identify the learning outcomes, so the students have a takeaway after participating in a project. This helps us create a quality curriculum.

I have found so many things that students of any age can enjoy. My focus is horticulture so I found many gardening, growing and observational horticulture projects that can be educational and fun. There are projects that work better for different ages, so I have some projects that can be easily adjusted. The projects I have modified include pressed flowers, paper making, and seed germination.

Since many projects include crafts, I created multiple examples for a number of projects. My favorite project I worked on was pressing flowers. In the gardens surrounding the office there are many, many flowers that can be pressed. In front of the plants there are signs labeled with the scientific name and common name. After pressing the flowers for many days, I would write down the scientific name and common name then use Mod Podge to glue the flower onto a piece of cardstock. This would allow the flower to be preserved along with its name, and allows the students to learn that flowers and other plants can have more than one name so that identification can be easier.

For my seed germination project, I grew different types of beans to see how they grew. The different beans allow for students to track different growth patterns between the different species. To develop scientific inquiry, there are many possible things to experiment with. Learning about a control group and an experimental group can show how you can compare and contrast regarding the different experiments. By using observational skills, students can learn how to identify and describe changes noticed in the real world.

A woman looks across black and yellow flowers at a site to the right of the camera

I’m glad I had the opportunity to work behind the scenes to understand how much work goes into every project and event that takes place. It takes many people many hours to make our events go well. This is especially true for planning the county fair and a summer 4-H camp.

I’ve learned to appreciate the work that is involved in preparing curriculum and revising projects that will be used in the future. There is always more work to do, and more things to revise, but it all works out in the end. I was able to work on many projects independently, which allowed me to work on my creativity not only with my curricula projects but also with marketing.

I had a wonderful time working with 4-H over the summer. I have learned so much during my 10-week internship and I would like to thank Lena for being a great mentor by teaching me so much about 4-H and about OSU extension in general. I would also like to thank my co-worker Steven McIntyre for assisting me with my various projects.

Hi! My name is Nora Graham and I’m working with OSU Extension at the Southern Oregon Research and extension Center in Jackson County on some very cool entomology projects. I’m a senior horticulture student at OSU, and I hope someday to use my degree to help create and maintain beautiful landscapes for everyone to enjoy. Even though I’m only a month into my internship, I’ve been having a blast learning about insects and their relation to plants.

Nora Graham setting up a colony for aphids.

My time here has been divided between various research projects involving biocontrol for hemp, vineyards and pear orchards. With hemp, we are trying to see if we can use a wasp to control cannabis aphid populations, since this wasp lays its eggs inside living aphids which eventually kills the aphids. So far, we’re starting the experiment from scratch, so I’ve been helping develop a procedure as well as trying to start a colony of cannabis aphids. We need to see if we can keep a steady population of aphids alive so we can actually conduct the experiment. If all goes well, we’ll be starting trials by next month.

With vineyards, I get to help collect data to determine if treehoppers are a vector for a virus that damages grape vines called red blotch disease. To collect these insects, we go to various places we think they’d be living with a net and swing the net back and forth across the plants. The treehoppers are usually stunned and stay at the bottom of the net long enough to collect. After we collect them, we give them a sucrose solution to feed on and then we test the treehopper and the solution for the virus to see if the treehopper was infected and if it was able to spread its disease.

In pear orchards, one of the most destructive pests is so small you might mistake it as a gnat. It is called pear psylla, and it can do everything from ruin the color of pears, to inhibiting the leaves of the tree from growing, to spread a disease that kills the pear trees. They can develop resistances to chemical sprays, which is why growers are turning to more unconventional treatments of this pest. While researchers work to find a significant way to control pear psylla populations, growers have had to get creative with how they ward off the pest.

Norah Graham uses a net to catch treehoppers.

A promising biocontrol for the pear psylla is the hardy European earwig, Forficula aurcularia. Researchers at OSU have been participating in an experiment to see if earwigs could be intentionally placed into pear orchards to control the pear psylla populations. For the past few weeks, a large part of my work here at SOREC has been trapping hundreds of earwigs from peach orchards and moving them to pear orchards to see if they can help create a dent in the pear psylla population.

Anna Ehlers poses with her display at the Jackson County Fair.

I have been working with 4-H for the past few weeks and I am having a great time. We just finished working at the Jackson County Fair and I helped with a bunch of prep work in preparation for the fair. I started off my internship getting to know 4-H, learning about its values as an Extension program and how it contributes to the community. I have worked on many marketing projects, including making and designing flyers, creating trifold displays, and printing necessary documents for the fair. It’s a lot of work making everything perfect. I needed to have a lot of attention to detail while also displaying our message and goals of 4-H in an easy-to-read document for the community.

I had the opportunity to work at the county fair as a judge and a craft coordinator. I judged horticulture, educational displays, and miscellaneous STEM projects. I learned how to judge fairly based on the criteria. Interviewing the younger kids was pretty fun! Many of them had passions in different projects, and I really enjoyed talking with them about their projects. I made sure to leave plenty of comments on all of their work, even when I already worked eight hours that day, because I wanted to make sure everyone could look back and see how they could improve their projects in the future. I did my best to be fair and in line with the guidelines set in place for the different age groups. As you may expect, the older kids did better than the younger kids, but I saw a lot of potential in many of the projects I judged that day.

My favorite part of the fair was working with the public as a craft coordinator. I had thought of three different projects, with advice from my supervisor, about what projects I could do. I needed to find project instructions online and modify them to work with the age groups I was expected to work with. I also needed to find all the supplies I needed in storage and create a list of the necessary materials needed to be ordered to make these projects possible. The projects I presented were dirt buddies, animal tracks/pinecone people, and bead crafts.

The dirt buddies were a fun project where the kids put grass seed and dirt into a nylon sock, gluing googly eyes to the outside. When the kids get home, they watered their buddy and in a few days the grass seeds germinated and started to grow grass out of the top of their head – similar to a Chia Pet.

For my animal tracks and pinecone people craft I had plaster casts of four different animal footprints to show and ask the kids what they noticed about the tracks. I asked them about how many toes the tracks had then asked the kids how many fingers they had. Some of the younger kids thought it was pretty cool that opossums have the same number of toes that we do. I supplied coloring sheets with the same animals as the plaster casts so that they could make connections with the tracks to the animal. I also had a print-out of different animal tracks that the kids could look at. Their parents and grandparents were very intrigued by this page more than the kids were. On the other side of my table, I had the pinecone people crafts. The craft involves decorating a pinecone with googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and feathers to create a fun character. These two activities were designed to teach the kids about nature.

The final project I worked on was bead crafts. I provided images and instructions on how to make a bead doll, jellyfish, and a snake using various materials including pipe cleaners, egg cartons, string, pony beads, and googly eyes. This project was intended to work on motor skills as well as provide a chance to be creative using only a handful of materials. A number of kids deviated from my craft images and made their own designs, showing their creativity and ingenuity.

I have really enjoyed my time here so far. In the coming weeks I will be working with the different departments around SOREC as well as developing a horticulture curriculum for 4-H designed to be used next year.

Hello, this is Kanar Shaiban. During my internship for the OSU Extension office in Jackson County, I learned how to be self-sufficient and obtain information and awareness by seeking answers independently. My experience also strengthened my ability to think by encouraging me to look for evidence and generate effective solutions. Furthermore, it taught me how to address the community’s challenges through my projects.

I also learned how to perform a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis as a skill in my report about unmet housing needs in Jackson County. This internship was also helpful because it seemed like an environmental scan that covered every aspect of the community. Most significantly, my internship experience and projects taught me how to connect my public health major to the general well-being of the population and community.

I want others to realize how valuable OSU Extension is to the community and how it seeks to provide information, resources, and expertise to solve local issues and help everyone thrive.

Extension also promotes positive change through initiatives that make everyone feels secure and welcome. For example, when working with Jackson County during my internship, I realized that Extension is dedicated to serving all those in need.

In my job, I assisted undocumented survivors who were primarily impacted by last September’s wildfires but were ineligible for federal housing assistance. While doing so, I realized what my career is all about and how it strives to engage with the community to address unmet needs and challenges, resolve them, and develop innovative solutions. I realized how OSU Extension could be linked to my public health major. It helped me comprehend what my degree is all about, it served me put what I learned into practice, and it allowed me to appreciate what my career entails even more.

In general, the OSU Extension experience taught me the value of serving the vulnerable and those in need, and I realized how vital my profession is to society. This internship is something I would strongly suggest to other OSU students. It’s hard to determine a favorite aspect of my internship experience because I liked every aspect of it. However, the most satisfying element was exploring solutions to assist those in need and identifying methods to address their challenges.

OSU Extension Internship Program

Category Archives: Jackson County

An Incredible Summer Filled with New Experiences

Very thankful for the opportunities I received this summer!

Developing a meaningful experience

Learning how to solve pear and grapevine disease

Thankful for the opportunity to learn and grow

Incredible experience working on diverse entomology projects

Glad for the opportunity to work behind the scenes

Researching biocontrols for pests that affect hemp, grape vines and pears

Coordinating crafty projects for kids at the Jackson County Fair

Internship focused on exploring solutions to assist those in need in Jackson County

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