OSU Extension Internship Program «

Hello! My name is Abby Thorsen, and I am entering my third year at Oregon State University. I am studying human development and family science. After finishing my undergrad, I plan to attend grad school to pursue a career in counseling or therapy. I have loved every part of my internship under the OSU Extension Service Groundwater Protection program in the mid and southern Willamette Valley so far. My favorite part of this internship has been speaking with community members about their water and health and helping them find resources they can utilize.

Abigail Thorsen smiles for the photo at a nitrate screening clinic. Photo: Colleen Lovdokken

Extension has always been a huge part of my life, starting when I joined 4-H at nine years old and continuing until they gave me the boot after graduation. In high school, I was a member of multiple Extension Advisory boards in Polk County, where I learned about how Extension programs are run and funded on a deeper level. I am super excited to be involved with Extension again this year and give back to the program that has had such an impact on my life personally.

So far, I have learned an incredible amount about well water, groundwater and septic systems, and I have so much to learn still! Understanding the way these systems work together has also opened my eyes to how deeply our environment shapes daily living and health. As I keep learning, I’m excited to explore even more of the connections between environmental systems, public health and human services. It is meaningful to see how these areas overlap and I’m looking forward to continuing to build this understanding.

Given the numerous water screening clinics we host over the summer, I am also looking forward to traveling across the mid and southern Willamette Valley and seeing areas I have not spent much time in. I am excited to observe not only the environmental differences in this region, but also the varied community demographics. Having the chance to see these contrasts firsthand will help me better understand how environmental conditions and population characteristics intersect, and it will broaden and inform my perspective on the communities that we serve. This knowledge is something I plan to carry with me as I pursue my future career.

Hello everyone! My name is Shylee Davis, and I am an intern with the OSU Extension Service in Harney County. As local as it gets, I am a born and raised cattle rancher with a passion for the agriculture industry. Growing up around livestock, I quickly discovered that working with animals was where I belonged. This fall, I will be attending Central Oregon Community College to study health sciences before transferring into a veterinary technician program.

Shylee Davis smiles for a senior photo with her horse. Photo: Brooke Joyce

My involvement with Extension coincides with my involvement in 4-H, which started when I was in the fourth grade through my participation in swine projects and dog training. Because 4-H has played such an important role in my life, I was excited for the opportunity to work with the Extension Service and gain a behind-the-scenes perspective of the program that helped shape me. 4-H has taught me countless valuable life skills including responsibility, leadership and confidence. One of the best parts of this internship has been working alongside an amazing team while continuing to grow my passion for animal science and youth development. Throughout this summer, I have had the opportunity to assist with a wide variety of projects. I began by helping design and paint waves on the Harney County Historical Society’s Fourth of July float; Crossing of the Delaware. I have also helped set up livestock panels at the fairgrounds in preparation for the county fair in September. Aside from these activities, most of my time has been spent in the Extension office where I have worked on many different projects. Through Canva, I have designed buttons and T-shirts for our 4-H Day Camp, held July 13-16. More recently, I have been organizing office storage areas and sorting through historical records and books.

As the summer continues, I will be helping prepare for the Harney County Fair. I am especially excited about helping with fair preparations because, although I have spent many years exhibiting livestock, this internship has given me the opportunity to experience everything that happens behind the scenes. I have a new appreciation for the planning, teamwork and dedication required to make the fair a success.

Balancing this internship with my own market and breeding livestock projects through FFA has been both challenging and rewarding. It has strengthened my time management skills and allowed me to experience the fair process from both the exhibitor and organizer’s perspectives. This internship has been an incredible learning experience and I am forever grateful for the opportunity to give back to the program that has given so much to me. I look forward to continuing to learn, serve my community and help make this year’s Harney County Fair a great success.

Hello everyone! My name is Nakayda Jacobs, and I am a senior at Oregon State University studying natural resources with a focus in agricultural and natural resources communications. This summer, I have the great pleasure of being part of the Groundwater Protection and Education team with OSU Extension in the mid and southern Willamette Valley.

OSU Extension intern, Nakayda Jacobs tabling at the Millersburg Farmers’ Market. Photo: Colleen Lovdokken

One thing to know about me is that I enjoy a little bit of everything and love working at the intersection of different disciplines. One of my favorite parts of this internship has been seeing how natural science and human health come together. I also enjoy working alongside a team of peers with diverse academic backgrounds, each bringing a unique perspective and expertise to the program. Every day has allowed me to learn something new, whether it’s about groundwater, public health or what community outreach really looks like.

As part of the groundwater team, I get to apply what I’ve learned in soil science and water resources to real-world issues involving private well water and septic systems. It’s been exciting to see how the concepts I’ve learned in the classroom directly translate into helping communities make informed decisions about their drinking water. Working for OSU Extension has been especially rewarding because it allows me to put my education into practice while continuing to learn through hands-on experience and community engagement.

One unexpected challenge has been learning how to communicate the bitter with the sweet. As someone passionate about science communication, it can be challenging when the information I share has the potential to affect someone’s daily life or livelihood. While I love spending time at community events and farmers’ markets talking with people about topics I’m passionate about, an important part of this work is helping people understand potential risks to their health and water quality. Those conversations require empathy, patience and the ability to explain technical information in a way that is both accurate and approachable.

Throughout this summer, I hope to continue developing my communication skills and become more confident in having meaningful conversations with a wide variety of audiences. I’m excited to keep learning from my team, strengthen my outreach experience and continue growing as both a natural resource professional and science communicator.

Hello! My name is Makaela Carter, and I am very excited to be working with the Oregon State University (OSU) Extension Service in Douglas County as a 4-H intern this summer. I was born and raised in Douglas County, so I am grateful for the opportunity to work within my home community. I graduated from OSU this spring with a bachelor of science in agricultural sciences and a minor in agricultural and food business management. I will be returning to OSU this fall to pursue a master of science in agricultural education, with the goal of becoming a high school agriculture science teacher.

Makaela Carter smiles for a grad photo taken outside of the Memorial Union on OSU’s campus this past spring. Photo: Jacob McGhehey

I am extremely passionate about teaching others about the agriculture industry and helping students develop leadership skills early on. I hope to give students the resources they need to be successful in life after high school. Because I care deeply about education, I am excited to learn more about different types of educational outreach during my internship with OSU Extension this summer. I hope this experience will broaden my perspective on education and help me become a stronger educator in the future.

My involvement with 4-H began when I was 11 years old through raising and showing hogs at the Douglas County Fair. While my knowledge of OSU Extension as a whole has been limited, I am eager to expand my understanding throughout this internship. My main tasks this summer will be assisting with preparations leading up to the Douglas County Fair and helping out behind-the-scenes to ensure that it is a successful week for all 4-H members. I am looking forward to being a part of such an important event in the community!

Since beginning this internship a few weeks ago, 4-H activities have been in full swing. I helped prepare and facilitate our county’s Cloverbud 4-H Camp, where we offered many engaging activities for members. Kids created bug hotels, made bird feeders, performed science experiments, potted flowers and even put together a paper quilt that will be displayed at the fair this August along with the other 4-H static exhibits.

These three weeks have flown by and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store!

Douglas County intern, Makaela Carter, smiles for the camera at the end of the 4-H Cloverbud Camp alongside the 4-Hers, volunteers and other OSU intern (Amaya Slay); posing with the paper quilt that the Cloverbuds created. Photo: Katie Baxter

Hey everyone! My name is Mackenzie Wesley, and I just wrapped up my sophomore year studying sports management and equine business management at Asbury University in Kentucky. I am so excited to get to serve this summer as the Klamath County Extension foresty intern. Having grown up in the Klamath Basin, I am thrilled at the chance to pour back into the community that has poured so much into me. This is my first year interning with the Klamath County Extension office, but I am excited about everything that is going to happen.

Mackenzie Wesley leans against a fence post and smiles for a picture. Photo: Tyra Mast

I will be assisting our head of foresty, Kidane Giday, in organizing a county-wide 6th grade education event focused on forestry. During this tour, students will be exposed to various aspects of preservation, maintenance and general outdoor knowledge. This will be done through eight stations that will be set up in a loop with each station touching on a different aspect of natural resources and forestry knowledge. Having taken some natural resource and outdoor skill classes myself, I am incredibly excited to get to create a space where 6th graders will get to learn about the world around them in a hands-on way. This event will also have natural resources and forestry professionals as educators at every station, which is an excellent way to build career awareness. I am looking forward to getting the opportunity to expand my event management skills as that is something that I am looking at going into once I graduate.

Over the summer I hope to improve my emailing skills, mass communication skills and gain a foundational understanding of what it takes to program and run an event such as the one I explained above. I am also looking forward to spending time learning more about forestry in the Klamath Basin and working with the incredible team at the Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center.

Hi, my name is Cydney Stables, and I am the Agritourism intern for the Marion, Polk and Yamhill
County offices. A major part of my internship is traveling to Agritourism operations across the
state, surveying their customers for a day. We are collecting their information in a consumer
sentiment research project to help understand the value Agritourism serves in our
communities.

A photo of the product shelves available in the honey tasting room at Flying Bee Ranch. Photo: Cydney Stables

Our questions include topics of reasons for visiting the farm, distance traveled to get to the
farm, amount of money spent, overall satisfaction with their on-farm experience, best ways for
farmers to connect with consumers and why farms in general should be open to the public?
Several of these topics spark conversations with consumers and farmers alike. I have had the
opportunity while surveying to chat with individuals at the farm and learn more verbally about
their perspectives, experiences and personal opinions surrounding agriculture. I have found that
for consumers, the main reasons as to why Agritourism should exist seem to reside around
having the availability of locally grown products, the exposure to agricultural operations, a way
for farmers to make income and simply an activity to do with the family. To me, each of these
are important indicators that Agritourism is essential to educating consumers about the
agriculture industry.

Besides talking with consumers, I have also had the opportunity to speak with passionate
farmers and learn more about their challenges, goals and what they wished the public knew
about farming. My most recent experience of this was with the owner of Flying Bee Ranch in
Salem. Jeremy owns and manages a small honey operation where they host guests at a tasting
room on the farm, attend local farmers markets and provide direct-to-consumer products at
local stores. He sat down towards the end of my day surveying and chatted with me all about
his views as a farmer when it came to regulations surrounding Agritourism and the impact his
farm has on his customers. Some of these views include the difficulty he faces only owning a 5-
acre plot of land and trying to produce a living, the uncertainty of weather and other opposing
events impacting his daily sales and even a trend he has noticed when attending markets that
involves competing with what consumers define as “local.” Each of these concerns are topics
that Jeremy and likely many other small farmers worry about regularly, yet customers likely
never even realize.

To me, these conversations have been the most impactful part of my internship experience so
far. Coming from a small farm background and having the opportunity to network, learn and
experience how other small farms across the state of Oregon operate, the challenges they face
and the ways in which they are successful, has been extremely worthwhile.
I can’t wait to continue surveying farms across the state as I complete my internship. I am
excited to learn, network and collect research that will help aid in the awareness and
excitement surrounding a small sector of the agriculture industry.

I have truly enjoyed being an Oregon State University Extension Service this
summer. I have been able to participate in multiple events and develop new skills. While
my experience was entirely with 4-H I have had the opportunity to help with a range of
activities. I started off by teaching flower arranging at our Junior Master Gardener camp.
Flower arranging was one of my main 4-H projects, and I enjoyed sharing my
knowledge.

Dean Burwash is raised for a fun picture. Photo: Andrea Hunter

I also worked on my grant application skills by researching and looking at
successful applications. I had a difficult time finding grants that could be applied to the
specific things we needed them for. Some grants looked very promising and in the fine
print said that they would not give funds to universities or university programs. I was
successful with an application, and I also found a few perfect grants that we just missed
the deadlines for. I enjoyed learning about the grant application process, and I hope that
I can find a few more before my internship is over.

I continued creating Canva graphics for social media reminders, events and
posts. Throughout the last school year, I was working as an unpaid 4-H intern and all I
did was create social media posts. I have become well equipped using Canva and I can
see my improvement from my designs when I started.

The biggest part of my internship was working at the Polk County Fair. I spent
part of my time in the 4-H building answering questions and such. Most of my time was
spent running errands around the fairgrounds and helping with morning meetings.
In between these events I spent my time at the Oregon Outdoor Education
Center at 4-H Wild West Camp in July and August. I was not there only as an intern
necessarily, but it was still one of my favorite experiences working with 4-H this
summer.

The last two weeks I worked at the Oregon State Fair helping with setup,
teardown and picking up our county’s exhibits.

I think I gained a better understanding of 4-H programming and the work that
goes into things behind the scenes. I would tell future interns to participate in as many
things as they can. I have enjoyed participating in a wide range of events and activities
as an intern.

– Dean Burwash

Hello again! My name is Natalie Padilla and this summer I have had the opportunity to work as
an intern at the Oregon State University Extension Service in Clackamas County Extension office
in the SNAP-Ed, Family and Community Health program and recently even the Small Farms
program as well. I have spent this summer gaining new experiences and having the chance to
learn about so many different things! Now that September is here, I am nearing the end of my
internship and I am extremely grateful that it has been possible to do something like this.

Natalie Padilla working at the NWREC on a small project for Small Farm School. Photo: Macy Jones

As I mentioned, I am currently working with the Small Farms program. Macy, my fellow intern
at the office was given the chance to start working as SF interns this summer, which keeps us
even busier with more opportunities. We were able to finish up some of the social media posts
for the Small Farms Facebook and Instagram accounts. Once or twice a week, we go to NWREC
in Aurora to harvest Bitter Gourds and different Cucamelons. Most of what we have been
harvesting has been going to Salem Harvest, a non-profit organization who focuses on feeding
hungry families. It has been refreshing to see that what we have been harvesting is going to be
used to feed people that need it and they are not going to waste!

Not only have we been out in the field, one of the biggest things we have been working on is
preparing for Small Farm School at NWREC. SFS will host around 300 people who are excited to
learn about everything Ag related. To prepare I helped, along with Buffy Rhoades and Tanya
Kindrachuk to make around 400+ craisin oatmeal balls by hand. It was definitely an interesting
learning experience since I have never really cooked for that many people. Macy and I have also
been preparing nametags, and stuffing packets for the attendees of SFS. There have also been
some tiny side projects that we have to complete occasionally!

On the SNAP-Ed and FCH side of things, I am keeping busy as well but as my internship and
summer nears its end it is slowing down a little bit. Our last Walk With Ease class was
September 4th. It was a nice closing, and I am glad that we were able to do that bit of outreach
for people. I also helped at the OC Free Food Market on the 2nd and we have the last one to do
on the 11th.

Even though my internship is ending I am glad that it was a learning experience and that I can
say that I had the chance to help in some way. Being an OSU intern has taught me so much and
I have been able to grow through the summer and meet so many wonderful people, who have
also taught me so much.

Hi again! My name is Macy Jones and this summer I have had the opportunity to work as a
Family and community health / Small Farms Intern in Clackamas County. Throughout my
internship I have gained a better understanding of Extension and developed valuable skills that
I can take with me throughout my career.

Macy Jones working at the NWREC. Photo: Natalie Padilla

In the second half of my internship, I continued to work with Family and community health and
worked with the walk with ease program and the free food markets. We have made more
progress with walking with ease and hit the goal of walking for 30 minutes each session.
Through this program I’ve learned the importance of empathy, active listening, communication
and the meaning of community outreach. I am grateful I had the chance to build these skills. I
also attended the North Clackamas Free Food Market at the DHS office. This was a great way to
get out in the community and connect with others. One of my personal goals during my
internship was to become more comfortable with public speaking. Participating in the free food
market was a great way to practice and I have grown in my confidence when engaging with the
public.

Another exciting part of the last half of my internship was taking on a new role as a small farm
intern. In this position I was able to enhance my marketing skills by learning new tools such as
Meta business suite, Mailchimp and Canva where I was able to learn to make posts. I also spent
time at North Willamette Research Center where we did farm work and had hands-on
experience. While being on the farm I learned about soil moisture sensors and irrigation
systems and I also got to harvest a variety of cucumelons and bitter gourds. Right now, as a
small farm intern I have been helping prepare for mall farms School by making packets and
prepping name tags. All of these experiences have taught me the importance of hard work and
practical skills such as organization.

This Internship has been full of opportunities to grow, hands on learning and great experiences.
I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to work in Extension and be a part of a great team.
Thank you to my supervisors for your support throughout these past few months!

Hi, I’m Rachel and I’m an intern at Oregon State University Extension Service in Hood River
County. I have been working in partnership with the Master Gardener volunteers at the FISH Food
Bank Garden. The mission of the garden is to grow produce for the food bank and provide garden
education to the community. The garden is a place for people to visit, volunteer and connect with
others.

Rachel Fuller smiles for the camera in the FISH Garden. Photo: Yvonne (a FISH Food Bank volunteer)

My position in the garden was that of a garden manager. I found it enjoyable working with
the plants and soils as well as background systems and structures. I have years of experience in
vegetable farming and brought new ideas with a production mindset into the garden. This was a
fun challenge stepping into the gardening world and learning how to interact with vegetable
production in a more lowkey environment where community is really one of the main
components.

I have not fully comprehended the extent of this internship’s value. There were so many
things that I got to do and take part in including public speaking, infographics, creating systems,
building relationships and developing better intergenerational communication skills, working
with youth, grant writing knowledge, volunteer management, garden management and more.
When I went back to school, I had my eyes and heart set on the NRCS. That dream was derailed
this winter and since then I have been reassessing what I value in a future career. I went back to
school with the core mission to help rural farmers and communities.

Through the grant writing courses and discussions with a mentor I have seen the value in
those skills and the foundations that fund farmers and rural community projects. While I still have
interest in working in soil conservation, my interest is peaked and I wonder if a career working for
an organization or foundation that focuses on funding rural communities. While I love being
outside and working with plants and soils, I do think that my experience here has shown me that
I could take my career in many different directions. I have become increasingly more confident in
my right to guide my own days. I have invested my time in the things that benefit me and benefit
the garden. I have also become more confident in knowing what workload is manageable for me
and when to say no to extra tasks and projects while still finding a way to delegate the tasks so
that they get done.

OSU Extension Internship Program

OSU Extension intern serves at the intersection between health and the environment

OSU Extension intern goes behind the scenes to give back to her community

OSU Extension intern seeks to communicate and engage with the community

OSU Extension intern supports education in the local community

OSU Extension intern explores career aspirations through current opportunities

OSU Extension intern studies agritourism’s role in local communities

OSU Extension Intern explores the heart of 4-H through events and engagement

OSU Extension intern wraps up a summer of service and skill building

OSU Extension intern bridges family health and farming in Clackamas County

OSU Extension intern focuses on growing- in more ways than one

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