{"id":2035,"date":"2026-07-30T10:30:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T17:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/?p=2035"},"modified":"2026-07-30T10:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T17:30:20","slug":"osu-extension-intern-leads-through-summer-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/2026\/07\/30\/osu-extension-intern-leads-through-summer-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"OSU Extension intern leads through summer innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey\u00a0there!\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My name is Zach Richards, and I am currently a college student majoring in mechanical engineering. Recently, I finished my\u00a0freshman\u00a0year, 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.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0also worked with my local OSU Extension office to help organize a food drive that\u00a0benefited\u00a0local elementary school students.\u00a0This summer, I\u00a0get\u00a0to take my experiences one step farther as the county intern.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"\"\n
Zach Richards in the current MakerSpace for Marion County. Photo: Zach Richards<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

Over the course of my internship,\u00a0there are a number of skills that I look forward to developing.\u00a0First, this internship will be a great environment to learn how to organize and lead workshops\/events.\u00a0A 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.\u00a0I also look forward to developing my ability to communicate with my coworkers and\u00a0stay\u00a0on top of what needs to\u00a0get\u00a0done.\u00a0Working with other offices outside of my county will definitely give me the chance to practice this skill.\u00a0Additionally, I am looking forward to the fair and the completion of the \u201cMakerSpace\u201d set up (a creative space for artistic creation)! Both the fair and the\u00a0MakerSpace\u00a0will help\u00a0showcase\u00a0creativity and will be fun to be a part of.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey\u00a0there!\u00a0\u00a0 My name is Zach Richards, and I am currently a college student majoring in mechanical engineering. Recently, I finished my\u00a0freshman\u00a0year, 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… 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":[9,65],"tags":[327],"class_list":["post-2035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-h","category-marion-county","tag-zach-richards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035","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=2035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2036,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035\/revisions\/2036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/extintern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}