OSU Extension Internship Program «

Hey everyone! My name is Sienna Mahaffy, the intern here in Coos County this summer for the
second time! I will be a junior at Oklahoma State University in the fall, majoring in animal
science, with minors in ag business and equine enterprise management. I was born and raised
on a dairy farm in Coos Bay and was an active participant in 4-H, so agriculture and Extension
are close to my heart. My career goals are a work in progress, but I would love to get a master’s
degree and return home to work in Oregon agriculture.

Sienna Mahaffy working in the cranberry bogs. Photo: Sienna Mahaffy

I am excited to continue learning about the Oregon State Extension Service this summer! I will
be continuing my responsibilities with 4-H in preparing for the county fair by assisting with
organizing contests, setting up shows and disseminating information to members and leaders.
Additionally, I will continue to assist our Food and Nutrition Agent with the Food Hero program
at local farmers’ markets and organized classes. I look forward to continuing to work with youth
in the community through 4-H and Food Hero, educating them in agriculture and nutrition
while helping them have a fun, learning filled summer!

The most exciting addition to my summer experience is my introduction to the cranberry
industry! I am working with Coos County’s agriculture agent and local cranberry specialist to
trap and track cranberry girdler and black-headed fireworm moths, large pests in the cranberry
bogs of Coos and Curry counties. In my biweekly travels to check the pheromone traps I have
met with many growers and learned an immense amount about cranberry growing, an industry
that is thriving in this area.

My internship project has yet to be decided, but I will likely use the organization of the Milk
Drinking Contest again this summer. I have already contacted sponsors and arranged for the
donation of milk and prizes. Soon, I will begin contacting local dairy farmers to help serve the
milk and race against the winning team (our little Coos County tradition). I could also use my
increased involvement with managing the Purple Cow, the ice-cream booth run by 4-H and
staffed by local clubs during the fair to raise money for 4-H events, activities and awards
throughout the year!

Overall, this summer is looking to be the best yet. I am excited to continue my involvement with
Extension and work with my community in new, meaningful ways!

Hi everyone, my name is Heidi Moran! This will be my third summer as an intern for Oregon
State University Extension Service in Union County. I just finished my junior year at Eastern
Oregon University, where I am majoring in elementary education. I have been involved in 4-H
since I was in fourth grade and have really enjoyed working and helping at 4-H events that I
participated in when I was in 4-H. So far this summer I have worked at Eastern Oregon
Livestock Show and the Union County Crop Tour.

Heidi Moran at the Union County Crop Tour. Photo: Shelby Benson

At the beginning of my internship, I prepared and helped at the Eastern Oregon Livestock Show
in Union, Oregon. To prepare for the show I prepared awards, made exhibitor packets and
brought everything to the Stock show grounds. During the show I helped by directing traffic
during weigh in, assisted with some of the livestock shows, took pictures and helped wherever
was needed. This was a great way to start my internship!

Another highlight of the summer was the 47th annual Crop Tour in Union County. During the
tour I helped by counting people on the buses, taking pictures and doing anything else that was
needed. I enjoyed learning more about the agriculture in Union County!
This has already been a great summer, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer has in
store for me!

Hi everyone!
My name is Jackie Ruff, and I am a 4th-year environmental science major with an option
in chemistry and a minor in education. This is my 2nd summer doing the Extension internship. I
am working with the Groundwater Education Protection Program this summer, and I have been
working with them for a year and 8 months now. I have done many projects with them and other
programs, including water testing, educational classes and even helping plan the annual Small
Farms Conference.

Jackie Ruff doing nitrate screenings at the Stayton Farmers Market last summer. Photo: Chrissy Lucas

Over the past couple of months, we have been running our well testing program. In this
program, I have gotten to go throughout Benton, Linn, and Clackamas counties, meeting
different well owners, testing their water and providing free educational materials on wells and
septic systems to them. With this program, we were able to provide free well testing to 200
households in Benton County, 150 households in Clackamas County, and 100 households in
Linn County! I have really enjoyed working in this program as it directly relates to my career
goals in science education. I am still figuring out what my exact career goals are, but working for
Extension Service has given me so much experience and many opportunities that I am so
grateful for.

I have also been working on scheduling many free nitrate screenings for us to do this
summer. Over the summer, we visit farmers’ markets and community events across 6 counties
(Linn, Lane, Benton, Marion, Polk, and Lincoln). At these events, we provide free nitrate
screenings to well water owners. We also have a ton of free educational materials at these
events. I have been busy scheduling, mailing and advertising for these events recently, and now
we have a bunch on our calendar! Last summer, we did around 20 events. This summer, we
already have 15 events scheduled, and we are not done scheduling them! I am hoping we can
get around 25-30 events on the calendar this summer. Doing these screenings was my favorite
part of last summer’s internship, so I am very excited to have even more to do this summer.

Hello! My name is Kyla Baxter, and I am so excited to introduce myself as the 4-H Summer Intern for the Oregon State University Extension Service in Douglas County. I was born and raised in the small town of Oakland, Oregon, and have always been involved in the agricultural community for as long as I can remember; I am so happy I can connect it with youth development activities this summer!

Kyla Baxter, OSU Extension Intern in Douglas County. Photo: Christine Summers Photography

I started in the 4-H program when I was just nine years old, and I was involved for six years. I showed livestock at the county fair, participated in community service, photography, and livestock judging, and even served as my club president during my junior year of high school. During my freshman year, I transitioned to FFA to exhibit my animals.

Kyla and swine project, George. Photo: Brooke W Photography

This fall, I’ll be taking a further step in my education at the University of Idaho. I am majoring in animal and veterinary science with a focus on production and animal nutrition. I hope to pursue a career in feedlot production or animal nutrition, which I find so important and crucial to the world of Agriculture!

One of the most exciting things about this internship is getting a behind-the-scenes look at all that Extension offers. I’ve always associated Extension with 4-H, but now I’m learning that it’s so much more. From agriculture and natural resources to youth development, community engagement and nutrition education. Extension reaches every corner of our community, and I cannot wait to be a part of it this summer.

Of course, one of the biggest events of the summer is the Douglas County Fair, and this year is going to be a huge challenge and an even bigger adventure for me. I’ll be helping with the 4-H program all week and exhibiting my market and breeding hogs as an FFA member. It is going to be a whirlwind, but I love a good challenge and I’m excited to rise to the occasion!

During my interview for the internship, I was asked how I might help shape the culture of the fair this year. I immediately thought about how much I love a good t-shirt- not just for the style, but for how it can unite people and spark for pride. So, I came up with a t-shirt fundraiser! The shirts feature “Douglas County 4-H” on the front and the 2025 fair logo on the back and they celebrate our beloved fair mascot Dougy’s 60th Birthday! All proceeds will go toward supporting the Douglas County 4-H Ambassador Team. This project is more than just raising money- it is about bringing our community together to celebrate 4-H, agriculture and youth involvement.

I know this summer will be full of learning, growth and lots of hard work, and I truly couldn’t be more excited. I am so grateful for the opportunity to give back to the program that I grew up in and learn from the passionate people who make Extension such a vital part of our community.

Thank you for reading, and I hope everyone has a great summer!

During my time here at the Oregon State University Extension Service office in Morrow County I have had such a fun summer! I have learned so many amazing things about what the Extension Service is all about. I have felt like I have grown my confidence level of being assertive and confident enough to where people felt like they could come to me if they had any questions. This was a challenge for me when I first started my internship. I was never confident in my answers to the public and was always double checking before answering them. Now I have the confidence and knowledge to help people in a way that is more presentable.

During my internship I was able to be hands on in several events. The largest being fair. I had such an amazing time at our county fair and felt like I was able to help and show kids that even though you may not be able to still show animals you can still be a role model to the younger kids and help them have an amazing fair. Fair was by far my favorite event I got to help with but helping with all the other events has been a blast as well. During this internship every day has been a little different and that is why I have come to love this summer so much!

A key takeaway for me over this entire summer has been just rolling with the punches. There is never a guarantee that the day will go as planned and that is alright! As long as things get done before the due date it is a success. This is a great life motto to live by I feel, and it is something I have tried to live by but this summer has really amplified the trueness of this statement. There have been many other lessons I have learned but I feel this is the greatest piece of advice I have come to know is true. This internship has really allowed me to grow as an employee and grow my skillset to be a larger asset for myself. I really encourage other college students to apply for this internship if they are not sure what they want to do for the summer.

-Hailey Cunningham

Hey, my name is Symone and this summer I did an internship with Oregon State University Extension in Lincoln County! During my internship I worked primarily with Small Farms but was able to do a variety of things across different program areas. For example, I was able to do work in 4-H, Nutrition and Master Gardeners. In the beginning of my internship, I was hoping to improve my planning and management skills. I discovered I was using those skills throughout my internship which ended up coming in handy while planning my internship project. My project was a presentation on accessible gardening practices for Master Gardeners to be able to learn from the presentation and teach the information to others.

Symone Hildenbrand teaches adults in Lincoln County classroom. — Symone Hildenbrand teaches adults in Lincoln County.

Somethings that helped prepare me for my presentation were helping my supervisor (Evie Smith) set up before an event and attending Master Gardener meetings prior to me presenting. A struggle I faced was putting certain tasks before others and not balancing them out which caused me to feel under prepared when it came time to present which then taught me to do things from the get-go so you will overall feel more prepared and so you are not coming down to the wire. Something I had looked forward to earlier on in my internship was the partnership for the “Lincoln Land and Water Tour”. The goal of the tour is to be able to take people from our local community and people from other communities in Oregon on a tour that shows the agriculture, fishing industry, and forestry in Lincoln County. The main thing I was looking forward to was the fishing part of the tour where we got to tour Pacific Seafoods (a seafood processing plant) in Newport. It was interesting to see how they processed the food and prepared it for shipment. This summer internship position taught me a variety of important skills like what all goes into planning and setting up an event. A key takeaway I got from this experience that I will take with me was finding a good balance and sticking with it as it will help you out a lot overall and it will help things feel a lot more arranged rather than scattered.

My name is Elias Stroock, and I’m an Oregon State University Extension Service Groundwater Protection intern in the Willamette Region. This summer, I’ve been actively involved in community events, educating residents about private wells and septic systems, and conducting nitrate water tests.

Elias Stroock at the Toledo Farmers Market. Photo: Elsa Buchholz

A focal point of my personal project was creating a map to visualize areas with high engagement and turnout for water testing. I enjoyed visiting new towns in Oregon and interacting with people from diverse backgrounds. Through these interactions, I gained a deeper understanding of the personal connections people have to their land. I felt confident in my ability to gather necessary information and assist residents with their water system concerns. Additionally, I utilized our publications as a tool to educate people about various aspects of their groundwater systems.

I was pleased to collaborate with other Extension programs, such as the Master Gardeners, at these events. These interactions allowed for more in-depth discussions about how different Extension programs benefit the community. My interactions with senior Extension employees also gave me a different perspective into the interpersonal skills necessary to communicate scientific information in a tangible manner. In addition, I was able to attend staff meetings for Linn, Benton and Marion County Extension offices. These meetings gave me an opportunity to share the work I have been doing with a wide array of people I otherwise wouldn’t have interacted with. I was also able to field questions about mapping technologies and think about how broadly applicable my skills are in relation to all the different parts of Extension.

One challenge I faced during this internship was time management. At an event in Cottage Grove, I was the sole representative and, due to poor planning, arrived unprepared. To my disbelief, many people had shown up early in hopes of getting their water tested, this caused me to start feeling a great deal of pressure. I had to quickly seek assistance from the market organizer and other vendors to get set up and start testing. This experience taught me the importance of staying organized and maintaining a confident demeanor when presenting crucial information to the public. I hope to continue practicing humility and seeking help when needed, especially in demanding professional situations.

Hi, my name is Jacob Falk. I am originally from Wallowa County, and had the privilege of returning as an intern for Oregon State University Extension Service in Wallowa County for a second year. My internship was slightly different this year, allowing me to gain a wider acquaintance with the Extension office in Wallowa County.

Jacob Falk poses in front of boxes in Wallowa County — Jacob Falk in Wallowa County

This year, I had the privilege to intern under Pet Schreder helping to collect data for the East Moraine Virtual Fence project on the Wallowa Lake Moraine. Each day started out hiking or 4-Wheeling in the beautiful Wallowa County outdoors to check trail camera footage and monitor grazing impacts on “exclusion zones”. I found my time spent surrounded by the outdoors educational and refreshing. It was an amazing opportunity to learn more about a new technology, improve my record keeping skills, and expand the scope of career choices.

Carrying over from last year, I had the opportunity to work with an incredible team of youth leaders in preparation for the Tri-County 4-H camp in Summerville. This was another highlight of my summer. Through the 4-H portion of my internship, I helped train councilors, organize events and execute plans to help positively impact youth in this regain.

Although this internship has been fun, growth does not come from the most enjoyable moments. It is important to notice the difficult aspects of our work, learn from the challenge and grow as an individual. One of the most educational moments of my internship was when an individual showed extreme apprehension to attending an overnight 4-H event. After a long conversation and much reassurance, I was able to give this individual a tour of the facility while explaining what our event was about. Although this individual was unable to attend the event, I left the situation with a sense of accomplishment that this person may be more comfortable attending overnight 4-H events in the future.

As a returning intern, I can honestly say this experience provided an opportunity to grow professionally, personally and practice career ready skills. Overall, my experience has been incredibly beneficial in developing new skills and deciding future career paths.

Hello again!

My name is Kimberly Alcaraz and I interned for the Oregon State University Extension Service in Lincoln County with SNAP-Ed and Family and Community Health. I will be going into my second year at Oregon State University in the fall, majoring in public health on the pre-med track. I want to become an emergency medicine physician and do my best to help anyone I can with a minor in Spanish. I was born and raised in Lincoln County, so I was very fortunate to be helping the community I grew up in with the many opportunities this program offers.

Kimberly Alcaraz presenting at a booth in Lincoln County. Photo: Felicia Olmeta Schult

My summer with Oregon State University Extension Service was amazing. This internship has been something that I have never done before or even thought I would do. This internship helped me learn about the awareness of social determinants of health, preparing me for the comprehensive perspective, which is key for my future career in the medical field. Being able to interact and listen to other people’s point of views and ideas has reassured my passion of wanting to be a doctor and help people no matter what. It strengthened the idea where understanding and collaborating is key when trying to provide the best care especially when it comes to people’s health. Being able to work in a professional environment during my internship was something I was looking forward to by developing skills like communication, working with others, and problem solving which I hope I continue to use when going through and becoming the doctor I strive to be.

Overall, being a part of food tastings, cooking class demonstrations and our Walk With Ease walking group has shown me how something so little can be so impactful. Food tasting and cooking class demonstrations provide a different point of view on how to approach the food you might have in your pantry and for some people providing the only meal people have a day, which makes me think that there can be change in the world even if it is so little. However, something I will never forget is the walking group I was privileged to be a part of and facilitate. Walk With Ease is a research-based program emphasis for people with arthritis being that it is published by the Arthritis Foundation, but is a program for everybody. Everything about building relationships with participants and them actually coming back for every session because they did feel like walking together was helping them, which made me happy that every day of this program was worth it. I feel that everything I have done in this internship will help me in my future challenges in my career because starting here has helped me shape the person I want to be in my professional career. I will always be grateful for my supervisor, everyone at the office, and OSU Extension for this amazing experience.

I was very excited to start at the Oregon State University Extension office in Polk County, and that excitement has continued through the few months that I’ve worked here. I was excited for the chance to be creative, the chance to use the knowledge I had gained over the last year at Chemeketa Community College and excited to learn new things.

Matthew Mankins at a canning workshop. Photo: Brooke Edmunds

I had many great experiences this summer and learned a lot along the way. The main projects I worked on included: Creating a proposal for a garden to go behind the Dallas office, teaching a class on soils, working with the Master Gardeners at public events and at the Inspiration Garden and traveling to learn about various projects Extension is involved with.

I especially enjoyed the open house at the Polk County Extension office because I had the chance to hear more about the different projects that are being done. Plus, it was a pleasure to see such a supportive positive group of people.

One challenge I had was to do a soils class. I have done classes for children at summer camps, but never a class for adults and never over such a complex topic as soils. It was hard to determine how long it would take to cover the material while giving time for a break and questions or other unexpected things.

The class was on September 14, 2024 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Dallas office and we had over 15 people attend. We did a jar test for soil texture. I gave an overview of topics about soils and nutrients. I then talked about how to get a soil test and showed the results of a test I had done for the future office garden area. I then showed how to calculate the number of amendments needed for a soil test. Finally, I covered different types of amendments and their pros and cons. I think people of different knowledge levels were able to get something from the class.

My main takeaway from the class was to adjust the class for the general public. I created my class with Master Gardeners in mind. However, the general public doesn’t necessarily have the background knowledge to follow some information. In the future if I do any math or talk about pH, I will give more basic information to prepare the audience for these topics.

There were many important takeaways from this interesting experience. One is to just try doing something even if you aren’t exactly sure how to go about it. In a positive supportive work environment where people are allowed to learn and grow, the entire team is stronger as a result of this culture. This allows the organization to produce the best results. The support I felt from the office staff made trying things like teaching a class much easier. As I look for employment, I will look for a place that gives the type of support I felt at the Extension office in Polk County.

-Matthew Mankins

OSU Extension Internship Program

OSU Extension intern takes on cranberries, tradition, and community education

OSU Extension intern supports 4-H and local ag events

OSU Extension intern connects with communities through clean water

OSU Extension intern goes from member to mentor

OSU Extension intern grows in confidence

OSU Extension intern learns how to find professional balance

OSU Extension internship builds essential skills

OSU Extension intern finds personal and professional growth

OSU Extension Intern help home community

Extension intern reflects on learning and growth

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