It has been a great few months at the OSU E​xtension office! Over my time here I have been able to help at a variety of local events. Some of my favorites include the county fair, corn festival, 4-H youth camp, and a water cycle camp. I also had the opportunity to help teach the Spanish classes hosted at our office building. It was fun to see kids progress and be able to help them improve. Soon, I look forward to returning to school and resuming my studies. I will be able to apply some of the things I learned over the summer as a research assistant to an engineer working in field crops, which will be very exciting. Now that I know there are so many more community events than I knew about, I will also try to participate in more of them.  

I really loved working here over the summer! One of the highlights of my time as an intern was having the chance to organize and figure out our Makerspace. I spent a lot of time recalibrating and setting up the machines, as well as making sure that people would be able to use them in the future. I was even able to help make things that my coworkers would use in activities that they run. As I mentioned before, I also really liked the community aspect of the job. Working outside was always fun, as was seeing all the community activities come together. Although it was difficult to relate to people who had been part of 4-H their whole lives, I found that the more time I spent around them the more I was able to find enjoyment in what they saw too.  

Overall, I feel like my time here has allowed me to learn how to have strong community outreach, as well as helped me learn how to better plan activities. It also helped me understand more of what goes on in the agricultural community around us and has given me a greater appreciation for it. In the future, I will know how to help people engage in the community around them and consider more fully the implications of my work in a larger sense.  

– Zach Richards

Hey there!  

My name is Zach Richards, and I am currently a college student majoring in mechanical engineering. Recently, I finished my freshman year, and I am now looking forward to the next. I work for the Marion County OSU Extension office, the same county that I grew up in my whole life. In the past, I have gone to a couple of Extension related programs/activities such as the county fair and outdoor camps. I’ve also worked with my local OSU Extension office to help organize a food drive that benefited local elementary school students. This summer, I get to take my experiences one step farther as the county intern.  

Over the course of my internship, there are a number of skills that I look forward to developing. First, this internship will be a great environment to learn how to organize and lead workshops/events. A lot of what I know about 4-H stems from activities such as these, so it will be great to be on the organizational side helping out. I also look forward to developing my ability to communicate with my coworkers and stay on top of what needs to get done. Working with other offices outside of my county will definitely give me the chance to practice this skill. Additionally, I am looking forward to the fair and the completion of the “MakerSpace” set up (a creative space for artistic creation)! Both the fair and the MakerSpace will help showcase creativity and will be fun to be a part of. 

Over my time here, I plan to help get the MakerSpace to a point where people can come in and use the machines. I think it would be awesome if kids could come and learn design concepts as well as express their creativity through projects. I know that as a kid I would have loved trying out a few of the devices and learning how to use them. In the future, I hope to take a career path related to engineering and design. I think that aerospace seems cool, but I have also given some thought to mechatronics. Through my experience here, I believe that I will be able to give others a chance to explore similar interests as well as develop my own.