{"id":1704,"date":"2025-07-23T09:23:51","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T16:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/?p=1704"},"modified":"2025-07-23T09:23:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T16:23:51","slug":"osu-extension-intern-bridges-botany-and-outreach-in-columbia-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/2025\/07\/23\/osu-extension-intern-bridges-botany-and-outreach-in-columbia-county\/","title":{"rendered":"OSU Extension intern bridges botany and outreach in Columbia County"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello! My name is Savannah Barron, and I am currently an intern working for Oregon State
\nUniversity Extension Service in Columbia County, specifically the SNAP-Ed and Small
\nfarms\/Master Gardeners programs. I am going into my third year at Oregon State as an
\nundergraduate in botany, specializing in ecology, evolution and conservation, while also
\nminoring in chemistry and anthropology. This is my first year with OSU Extension, and the
\nexperience so far has been amazingly full of community outreach and learning. It\u2019s truly
\nwonderful to have such a hands-on experience in which you can see part of the impact you\u2019re
\nhaving on the people you\u2019re working with.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"\n
Savannah Barron, alongside coworkers, manage a booth at the Columbia County Fair. Photo: Janhvi Pandey<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

Entering my sixth week at OSU Extension, I have been able to participate in many different
\nprograms and events. In fact, I just finished tabling at the Columbia County Fair! The diversity of
\npeople I got to talk to and learn about was very insightful, and I cannot wait for more
\nopportunities to engage with the community. One program in particular that I have been
\nfocusing on is completing a small farms and gardeners’ needs assessment. Part of OSU
\nExtension\u2019s mission is to help teach the community, and we can only do that once we know
\nwhat they need help with. There are two different surveys I\u2019ve been getting people to complete,
\none for gardeners and one for small farms. Both have proved incredibly insightful into the
\ncommunity\u2019s needs, and as more people answer them, we get more accurate information. My
\njob is to spread awareness of the surveys and try to garner greater participation. I do this by
\ncompiling information on small farms and calling them and working events like farmers markets
\nand fairs to do in-person assessments.<\/p>\n

Besides the needs assessment, I have just started a few other projects. The biggest one I\u2019m
\nundertaking is the Community Garden at Louis and Clark Elementary School. Due to lack of
\ntime, this garden has been left to fend for itself for about a year. My job is to get it back in
\nworking order\u2014a thistle-and-native-plant filled journey that I am happy to embark upon\u2014so that
\nthe children and community members can have access to the wonderful teaching tool that is a
\ngarden. On the SNAP-Ed side of things, I will be starting to help with summer lunch programs,
\nand exercise programs with Food Hero.<\/p>\n

I am so grateful for this opportunity to be able to play a part in helping my community. I can\u2019t
\nwait for the next few weeks on this journey and all the opportunities that await!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello! My name is Savannah Barron, and I am currently an intern working for Oregon State University Extension Service in Columbia County, specifically the SNAP-Ed and Small farms\/Master Gardeners programs. I am going into my third year at Oregon State as an undergraduate in botany, specializing in ecology, evolution and conservation, while also minoring in… Continue reading →<\/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":[300,283,38,37,21],"tags":[301],"class_list":["post-1704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columbia-county","category-food-hero","category-master-gardener","category-small-farms","category-snap-ed","tag-savannah-barron"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704","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=1704"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1709,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704\/revisions\/1709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}