{"id":1666,"date":"2025-07-07T09:59:49","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T16:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/?p=1666"},"modified":"2025-07-07T09:59:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T16:59:49","slug":"osu-extension-intern-transforms-passion-into-purpose-through-public-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/2025\/07\/07\/osu-extension-intern-transforms-passion-into-purpose-through-public-service\/","title":{"rendered":"OSU Extension intern transforms passion into purpose through public service"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hey there! My name is Gracie Cox, and I\u2019m going into my third year studying planning, public<br \/>\npolicy and management at the University of Oregon\u2019s Clark Honors College with minors in legal<br \/>\nstudies and political science. I grew up in Lake Oswego, Oregon, but I\u2019m now proud to call<br \/>\nEugene home. This is my first year interning with Oregon State University Extension Service in<br \/>\nLane County, and the experience has been equally rewarding, challenging and enjoyable so far!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1665\" class=\"wp-caption thumbnail alignnone\" style=\"width: 768px;\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1665\" src=\"https:\/\/osu-wams-blogs-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs.dir\/3908\/files\/2025\/07\/some-campers-making-strawberry-jam-with-the-help-of-Lane-County-Extensions-Master-Food-Preservers-Credit-Jordan-Bethel-Farm-Camp-768x1024.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" \/>\n    <figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farm Camp campers take on the task of making strawberry jam with the help of the Lane County Extension&#8217;s Master Food Preservation program. Photo: Jordan Bethel<\/figcaption>\n    <\/figure>\n<p>Career-wise, I\u2019m interested in pursuing community health, public interest law and overall, any<br \/>\npath related to public service. Extension has been an excellent outlet for me to explore these<br \/>\ninterests, and I\u2019m especially grateful to the 4-H and Nutrition Education programs for<br \/>\nencouraging me to dive right into learning and leaving my mark on Lane County.<\/p>\n<p>Over this summer, I look forward to learning more about the \u201cbehind the scenes\u201d of community<br \/>\ndevelopment and community health programs; the glimpses I\u2019ve taken of this so far have been<br \/>\ntruly inspiring. Also, I\u2019m curious about the work-life balance in public service and how programs<br \/>\nhosted by Extension are responding to changes at the federal level. In observing my Extension<br \/>\noffice\u2019s flexibility, it\u2019s become clear to me that this organization is adaptable yet deeply<br \/>\ncommitted to its community development mission.<\/p>\n<p>So far, my internship has largely revolved around completing projects related to 4-H and<br \/>\nNutrition Education camps, preparing for the Lane County 4-H and FFA fair and working on<br \/>\ndigital outreach for 4-H. In these roles, I\u2019ve had the delight of meeting and working with such<br \/>\ncompassionate and diverse individuals, from campers to Extension staff to community leaders.<br \/>\nOnly a few weeks in, I already feel so much more connected to the county that I\u2019ve called home<br \/>\nfor the past two years, and I look forward to this continuing as summer progresses.<\/p>\n<p>Now three weeks into my summer with Extension, I\u2019m excited to continue educating myself and<br \/>\nmy community about the things that matter most: lifelong learning, health and well-being and<br \/>\nour relationships with one another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hey there! My name is Gracie Cox, and I\u2019m going into my third year studying planning, public policy and management at the University of Oregon\u2019s Clark Honors College with minors in legal studies and political science. I grew up in Lake Oswego, Oregon, but I\u2019m now proud to call Eugene home. This is my first&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/2025\/07\/07\/osu-extension-intern-transforms-passion-into-purpose-through-public-service\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14884,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15,75,50],"tags":[297],"class_list":["post-1666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-h","category-family-and-community-health","category-lane-county","category-social-media","tag-gracie-cox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14884"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1667,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666\/revisions\/1667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}