Hey y’all, my name is Jack Sparks, and I am an intern for OSU Extension this summer in Polk County! At Oregon State University, I am going into my sophomore year, studying mechanical engineering with a focus on robotic control in the honors program. Robotic control can vary widely, but I hope to focus on human-robot integration and sensors. My end goal is to get a PhD in autonomous mechanisms and human-robot interaction, with the hope of being a leader in the field and providing opportunities for rural students to get more involved in engineering programs.
Jack Sparks, intern in Polk County. Photo: Sarah LaDuke
4-H has played a huge role in shaping who I am and what I am studying. I have been involved in 4-H for almost a decade, where I have focused on the static and leadership side of the program. There weren’t a whole lot of STEM opportunities in my community while I was growing up, so I had to seek programs and projects actively. 4-H has given me so many opportunities that I would never have had otherwise. From being able to join a college program at 14 years old, to growing my leadership skills and being able to mentor youth; my involvement in the 4-H program is a large part of what makes me the person that I am today.
Currently, I am gearing up for the Polk County Fair in the first week of August and doing some general office work. I have been working at the fair for the better part of five years now, but being an intern has allowed me to learn a lot more than just how to set up the static building. We are also going to be in a new space this year, which will present new challenges and allow us to experiment with new layout designs.
As the summer continues, I will continue my general Extension work and assist whereverneeded. I also plan to teach STEM-related classes as part of my project for Polk County. I want to give youth the chance to do more than just the agriculture side of 4-H and offer them the opportunities I wish I had while growing up in the program.
Hello! My name is Evelyn Schecter and I am the Oregon State University Extension Service intern for Wasco County, Oregon. I have just graduated high school and I am going to South Dakota School of Mines and Technology for biomedical engineering in the fall. Throughout college, I hope to find the path within biomedical engineering that most interests me and then pursue it after I graduate. In the past, I participated in many 4-H camps, and I have worked as a 4-H STEM Teen Leader for the past three years. This involved helping out by running summer camps and afterschool clubs, along with coaching VEX IQ robotics at The Dalles middle school. This past experience is what inspired me to apply and become an intern for OSU Extension.
Evelyn Schecter sporting her college merchandise for South Dakota School of Mines on Decision Day. Photo: Varina Schecter
As an intern this summer, I will continue to help lead and plan summer camps for 4-H youth, and in August, I will help at the Wasco County Fair. So far this summer, I have helped lead many STEM camps, including Intro to 3D Printing, Game Maker, Sphero Coding, and Introduction to Vex IQ Robotics. I have also led a group at our archery camp and helped lead a few local hikes. These camps are meant to be an opportunity for youth in Wasco County to discover new interests and have fun while learning something new! For me, leading these camps allows me to partake in the community and help spread educational opportunities. Through my role as an intern, I am able to give back to the community through activities that I am extremely grateful were available when I was a 4-H member.
Bill and Evelyn from Wasco County instructing the archery line at their week long archery camp. Photo: Susan McCourt
In the second half of my internship I will continue leading more summer camps and will also be helping Susan McCourt with an Invention Convention teacher training. The purpose of this training is to spread knowledge of the Invention Convention (IC) to possible schools and teachers that will then be able to support it in their classrooms. While IC has been around for 43 years, it is just now being brought to Oregon, and I am super excited to be a part of spreading it throughout the state. I am also excited for this August as I will be helping out with the Wasco County Fair and 4-H program through planning and logistics, and offering service through tabling.
I am very grateful for what I have been able to do so far, and I am looking forward to whatever comes next!
My name is Madeline Breiling, and this is my fourth year working with OSU Extension in Umatilla County, but my first year serving as a 4-H intern. I recently graduated from the College of Charleston in South Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, astronomy and data science. This fall, I will be returning to the College of Charleston to pursue a master’s degree in mathematics with a concentration in statistics. I am excited to be back in Pendleton for another summer serving the community through OSU Extension!
Hermiston summer school students working on building a paper stomp rocket. Photo: Madeline Breiling
I am now in the seventh week of my internship. This summer, my primary focus has been reaching nontraditional 4-H audiences by providing STEM education opportunities to students who may not otherwise have access to them. STEM programming is an area with significant need in Umatilla County, and I have been grateful for the opportunity to combine my passion for STEM education with community service by developing my own STEM curriculum, creating lesson plans and teaching hands-on activities.
Featuring an afterschool program art project from students at the YMCA who followed a binary algorithm. Photo: Madeline Breiling
To start my internship, I worked with the YMCA elementary after-school program in Milton-Freewater, where I taught unplugged computer science lessons. These activities focused on building foundational computational thinking skills, including following algorithms, communicating clearly and developing creative problem-solving strategies. I also taught lessons in physics and engineering that encouraged students to take the lead in the scientific process through experimentation, allowing their creativity and curiosity to guide their learning.
Over the past two weeks, I have also been teaching an aerospace engineering unit to fourth- and fifth-grade students at Hermiston summer school. The unit concluded with students working in teams to design and build stomp rockets using paper and tape before testing them outside. After their initial launch, students developed a hypothesis about a design change that might improve their rocket’s performance, modified their rockets and launched them again to test their ideas. It was exciting to watch them apply the engineering design process while learning through experimentation.
For the remainder of the summer, I will be leading a STEM activity at Camp Cloverbud and teaching STEM lessons for the YMCA summer camp in Milton-Freewater. I am looking forward to the opportunities still ahead. It has been incredibly rewarding to see students become excited about STEM, especially since many of them have limited opportunities to participate in hands-on STEM learning during the school year. Seeing their curiosity and confidence grow has been one of the most fulfilling parts of my internship.
Hello! My name is Dean Burwash, I am a freshman at Oregon State University,
majoring in natural resources. I am an intern for the Oregon State University Extension
Service in Polk County. I have worked for OSU Extension previously as a Summer
Education Assistant at the Oregon Outdoor Education Center (formerly the Oregon 4-H
Center), where I taught at camps and helped manage the facility. I have been very
involved in 4-H for the last eight years, where I have served as a Polk County and 4-H
State Ambassador, camp counselor and 4-H intern. I have also attended numerous
conferences and taught various classes.
Dean Burwash at the Oregon 4-H Center. Photo: Sarah LaDuke
I just attended the 4-H Summer Conference for the last time as a youth, and I will
be a Junior Camp Director at both 4-H Wild West Camps this summer. I have been
going to camp since I joined 4-H. This year for the fair, I plan to enter some photos, a
wood mosaic (which is incomplete) and other miscellaneous static exhibits.
Previously, I worked for Oregon State University as a student employee at the
Oregon 4-H Center. I spent almost every night last summer living there and getting to
participate in each camp beyond the normal workday. I taught all kinds of activities and
classes, including archery, leatherworking, ropes course, big swings, arts & crafts and
canoes. This was my first job, and I feel like it gave me some unrealistic work standards
because of my love for camp. I am glad that I now have a wider range of work
experience types. This summer is primarily online and last summer was spent teaching
outdoors all the time.
This summer, for my internship, I am primarily working on grant applications to
begin with. These include requests from 4-H clubs, getting robotics curriculum,
purchasing incubators and funding art/welding classes. I am looking forward to
improving my grant application skills and hopefully seeing positive results. I am also
excited to be creating social media posts and learning how to use our new embroidery
machine! So far, I have started some grant applications, and I am working on finding
more.
Extension Intern Keon Kiser collects soil samples at the OSU Extension Moro Station. Photo credit: Jacob Powell
Hello readers of my second and final blog post of the summer of 2023! My name is Keon Kiser and I am a third-year OSU student studying environmental engineering. During my academic endeavors I have had the great privilege of working for the Wasco County OSU Extension office the past two summers. This blog post is a good opportunity to share my experiences with OSU Extension.
This past summer I’ve worked heavily with my supervisor, Lu Seapy, coworkers Bob M. and Susan M., and a fellow OSU intern, Theo Sandoz, on 4-H STEM summer camps. We worked together on organizing a variety of camps for youth that include hiking camps along the Columbia River, VEX robotics camps, Protobots, Drones and a Makey-Makey camp. In these camps we taught basic coding languages, physics of simple circuits, local biology, notebooking, and soldering skills. The variety of technical skills taught at these camps were a good application of skills I have learned in the past. But it was also a good learning experience, because I had to reach a certain level of mastery in order to teach each skill. For example, I have previous experience programming robots and creating engineering notebooks, but I had to practice my soldering skills as I had not soldered too much in the past. I had to constantly read up on local biology in order to teach the subject during the hiking camps. Also, I was given the task to independently lead a series of VEX Robotics and hiking camps. At the VEX camps I introduced the upcoming competition and focused on having the youth practice strategy, documentation, robot design and robot building. Then, at the series of 4-H hikes, I managed a group of youth and an assistant from The Dalles Parks and Recreation office. I contacted families and instructed campers in local biology.
Blejan, Evan, Christopher, Keon Kiser, Caleb, Nolan and Porter on a 4-H hike along the Rowena Plateau overlooking the Columbia River. Photo credit: Stacey Ihrig
Aside from the 4-H STEM summer camps, I was able to work with Jacob Powell, a Sherman and Wasco County extension agent, on his wheat-crop research projects. The overall idea of the project was to study grain sizes and soil micronutrients like nitrogen and phosphate across various combinations of nitrogen levels and fertilizers to see if there were any significant differences in yield. During this time, I witnessed the importance of accounting for any possible variable that could affect the results. For example, Jacob and I did not see any real obvious differences in grain sizes across most of the treatments, which could imply that none of the treatments would be any better than another tested treatment. However, we had to take into account the weather, as it did not rain a lot over the summer. The crops probably did not have enough moisture to carry the nutrients up the wheat stocks. This was a great lesson for me as I intend to participate in a bioremediation research project back at OSU. Additionally, I was happy to see the information and results gathered and presented from the fire break trials I helped Jacob with the previous summer.
Overall, OSU Extension has provided me ample opportunity to hone technical skills (like soldering), to become a better team leader and teacher, and to experience contributing, in one way or another, in scientific research. I have had so much fun working with the youth and watching them learn and grow many new skills throughout the summer, and from year to year. Additionally, the staff at Wasco County are great people who truly live the OSU Extension mission of serving the community. Their friendliness made working fun and their focus challenged me to put forth my best effort. I would rate this experience as two thumbs up and a smiley ball 🙂. Thank you!
Kids built solar powered cars at the renewable energy summer camp at Columbia Gorge Community College. Photo credit: Lu Seapy.
Hello, my name is Theo Sandoz, and I am excited to be back for my second year as an intern with Oregon State University Extension Service in Wasco County. I am a student at OSU studying nuclear engineering. Returning to the Wasco office feels like I never left, and the office is still as busy as ever. I am working alongside Keon Kiser who is also a returning intern for Wasco County. Our biggest project for the summer is planning and helping to facilitate S.T.E.M. day camps in Wasco County. There are other projects, especially those involving our county fair, that I am also very keen on doing.
First and foremost, we have our summer camps. So far, I have helped put on many day camps, including Aerodrone Academy, Galactic Quest and Renewables. The Areodrone camp had our campers learning how to program and fly small drones. Throughout this two-day camp we challenged all the campers to fly through and around obstacles and land on specific landing pads while directly controlling the drone and while the drone moved autonomously.
Another great camp that we put on is called Galactic Quest. The curriculum for this camp comes directly from national 4-H and was a blast. The campers made telescopes and cypher wheels and we played a lot of the Astro Adventure board game (Think Catan Spacefarers).
The most recent camp was our Renewables camp. In this two-day camp we spent the first day learning all about solar energy and then everyone built a small solar car and got to take it home. The second day was all about wind energy. With a few model turbines and some box fans we were able to turn the classroom into a wind tunnel and teach kids about turbine blade design and its effect on the power that wind turbines produce. The camps are incredibly fulfilling to put on as many of the campers get very invested in what we are teaching and bring their wild imagination to these fun events.
As August is fast approaching it is time to begin prepping for the Wasco County Fair and Rodeo. The Wasco County Fair runs Aug. 17-20 this year. This is my first year since 2012 that I have not participated in 4-H as a member. I still want to be as helpful as possible for those that are in 4-H and help put on an absolutely rocking fair and continue to do so for years to come. Because of my position as an intern, I have unique access to planning and operating certain events at the fair. I am most excited to work with Leah Lowe, Wasco County Extension 4-H program coordinator, on a new Livestock and Poultry Skill-a-Thon for the 2023 Fair. This is something that we started hosting last year and we plan to expand on last year’s vision and make the Skill-a-Thon a fully fledged event that can continue to be something 4-H members in Wasco County look forward to in years to come.
For the next month there are many more projects and camps that I cannot wait to tackle!
Swar Patel sits ready to help and learn. Photo credit: Akash Kallem
Greetings, readers! I am Swar Patel, a passionate computer science graduate student, and I am thrilled to share my internship experience with the OSU Extension Service. In this blog, I will take you through the early stages of my journey, highlighting the invaluable lessons I have already learned and the exciting prospects that lie ahead.
Within the Extension Service, I have been entrusted with a crucial role in shaping the evaluation process of nationwide youth-based programming. Leveraging the powerful capabilities of Salesforce CRM, I am working alongside a team to design and develop tools and resources that will facilitate efficient program evaluation. By collaborating with project stakeholders, I aim to identify their business needs and translate them into technical solutions that align with our overarching objectives.
My supervisors, Lucas Turpin and Mark Kindred, have been exceptional mentors, providing invaluable guidance throughout my internship journey. Their expertise and experience have been instrumental in shaping my understanding of project management and technical problem-solving. Under their wings, I have had the opportunity to draft project management documents, assist in designing discussion activities during stakeholder meetings, and produce flow diagrams. Their support has enhanced not only my technical skills but also my ability to effectively communicate and collaborate within a professional setting.
Coming from a computer science background, my academic pursuits have provided me with a solid theoretical foundation. However, my internship at Extension Service has given me the chance to apply this knowledge in a practical and meaningful way. By actively participating in the project life cycle, I have gained invaluable hands-on experience in identifying technical solutions that align with stakeholder needs. This practical application of my skills has allowed me to witness first-hand the impact of technology in streamlining evaluation processes and improving youth-based programming.
One of the unique aspects of my internship is the ever-evolving nature of the deadlines. Determined on a rolling basis, these deadlines keep us on our toes, adapting and adjusting to the outcomes of stakeholder meetings. This dynamic environment has instilled in me the importance of effective time management and the ability to prioritize tasks based on evolving project requirements. Collaborating with my managers, stakeholders, and fellow interns, we work together to ensure that our deliverables meet the project’s objectives within the designated timeframes.
Although my internship is still ongoing, the growth I have experienced in this short period is remarkable. This opportunity has not only strengthened my technical skills but has also nurtured crucial soft skills such as effective communication, teamwork, and adaptability. Working alongside seasoned professionals has exposed me to industry best practices and methodologies, expanding my horizons and deepening my understanding of technology’s applications in solving real-world challenges.
As I continue my internship at Extension Service, I eagerly anticipate further growth and learning opportunities. With the guidance of my mentors, I aim to refine my technical skills and contribute more substantially to the evaluation process. Each day brings new challenges, but I am determined to embrace them wholeheartedly, knowing that they will shape my future endeavors in the field of computer science. I am grateful for this internship opportunity and confident that the knowledge and experiences I gain will lay a strong foundation for my professional career.
In conclusion, my internship at Extension Service has been a transformative journey thus far. Working with Salesforce CRM to empower the evaluation of youth-based programming has opened my eyes to the profound impact of technology in the education sector. The guidance and mentorship provided by Lucas Turpin and Mark Kindred have been invaluable, fostering both personal and professional growth. As I continue to learn and grow, I am excited to confront new challenges and contribute to the success of the organization.
Thank you for joining me on this exciting adventure and stay tuned for more updates as I navigate the world of computer science during my internship at Extension Service!
Keon Kiser at home in the Wasco County office of OSU Extension Service. Photo credit Chelsie Gibson.
Welcome to my first blog post for the summer of 2023! I am Keon Kiser and I have just completed my second year studying environmental engineering at Oregon State University. If you are an avid reader of OSU’s intern blogs, then you may recognize me because I am returning for my second year as an OSU Extension Service intern in The Dalles, Wasco County. Once again I will be working alongside Lu Seapy, my supervisor, and the other interns in the 4-H STEM department helping to plan and manage STEM summer camps and assisting Jacob Powell, a wheat crop researcher, with his wheat-nitrogen absorption research.
As of this writing, I am beginning my third week of work and already I have helped manage the Aerial Robotics Camp, where we have taught youth basic safety, programming and controller drone skills. Coming up, I will be very busy leading a VEX IQ Workshop to help middle-schoolers prepare for the upcoming VEX IQ Competition, co-leading 4-H hikes along the Columbia River Gorge, managing a Protobot Camp to teach youth how to solder electronics, and assisting with many other STEM camps throughout the summer.
I returned to this internship for a few reasons. First, it was a ton of fun to work with my colleagues to create learning opportunities for youth in the STEM field and to watch them grow in technical skills and excitement for STEM and learning in general. Secondly, I get to be around a familiar community and I can continue to support my community by providing fun and new experiences for the youth. Finally, I am put in situations where I am challenged to improve many skills, like managing a workflow, leading conversations and cooperating with individuals.
To wrap up, I am very grateful for the opportunity I’ve been given to work with such great colleagues and community. The office mentality at the Wasco County OSU Extension Service is one where everyone has the same goal in providing the best learning opportunities as we possibly can for our community. Working for Extension not only has given me a greater appreciation and drive for community service, but it has also prepared me with skills and confidence for taking leadership roles in my future endeavors as a student at OSU and as an engineer in my career.
Pulling up to the school building after a fairly long drive I look around and see nothing really all that remarkable. My mom has been talking about sending me and my sister Nadine to this science day camp for about a week now. The car slows down and eventually comes to a stop. My mom turns to me and my sister who are in the back seat and says “Here you are! Enjoy your first day at Hydromania tell me all about it when you get home” She gives us both a kiss on the head and sends us off into the school. At the time I had no real idea about what Hydromania was, so I was very excited to start going every day. However, I was soon disappointed due to how un-engaging most the lessons were. Fast forwarding to today and I have to make a lesson myself, I know I can’t be that boring as well.
Hydromania as I came to learn was a science camp where kids like me would go and learn about different topics in science. My year that I was there I learned about all sorts of things. From lightbulbs to how the McNary Dam works. However, there was one crucial issue with Hydromania for me. It was boring. Really, really boring. Most of the way those topics were explained were in ways that just didn’t interest children. I say this only because it gives context to how I approached my lesson for Hydromania as an OSU Extension intern this summer in Umatilla County. I was determined to make it at least somewhat fun and engaging.
Joeseph Ferguson engages students at Hydromania.
To start I had to find something that would work for a short presentation. Learning from my past experience I knew I had to do something that would be engaging and hopefully interesting to learn about. This was way more difficult than expected. I would spend hours and hours finding a lesson idea writing a plan just to bore myself to sleep with it. I was beginning to worry that I just wouldn’t be able to make any lesson I could teach here fun or interesting. My only real goal here is to teach a subject in an engaging way and at this point it felt like I was failing at that.
Eventually I settled on a presentation idea just to make it fun. I had to engage the kids. So began making the final outline of the plan. I would be teaching them how to separate and identify the three different layers of soil. I would have a jar, a cup of soil and a pitcher of water along with two others already separated jars of soil. I would take time to explain the different layers and what you should look for in healthy soil then the fun part would come. One kid would put soil in the jar while another pours the water and the third will shake the jar for a minute. It’s fun to do so the kids would be engaged.
After all that preparation the day finally came, Hydromania. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. Before giving the lesson I was thinking things like, ‘What if I forget things or don’t know what to say?” “What if they ask questions and I don’t know the answers?” Anyway, I began the lesson, and it went well! The kids loved it! They were laughing and having a great time. I hope that helps them remember some of the cool information they learned.
Now that Hydromania has passed, and I won’t be likely to teach it again I had to stop and think about if I achieved my goal. I most definitely did. Getting kids to laugh and have fun with science is something that can be insanely difficult. I know I achieved it. That’s something I’ll always keep in mind – it’s not enough to just know information when it comes to teaching, you also must teach it and show it can be fun.
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.
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.
