What Doesn't an Extension Agent Do; Weeks One and Two

            After my first week as an intern one of my friends asked me “So, what will you do all summer?”

            So far, the answer has been, “Well, I think everything.” Trust me when I say that it has been far from boring in the Hardin County office.

            The week before my internship started I finished with my finals and moved myself home for the summer. Though I grew up only twenty minutes from the office I will be working in this summer, I didn’t know much about the office. I stopped by the office a week before my internship would begin to get a tour of the building and eat lunch with Marla Stillwell, my supervising agent and Amy Aldenderfer, the horticulture agent in the office. I came in that day because apparently Monday I would be “baptized by fire” and that phrasing was enough to make me nervous until my internship would begin.

            Really, Monday wasn’t nearly as scary as they made it seem like it would be. We just went to a camp planning meeting and I learned a lot about what camp would be like as an intern as opposed to a camper. That week consisted of a log of meetings, conferences, and trainings. I wasn’t prepared for the end of the week though.

That Saturday would be the Master Gardner Plant Fair as well as the Clover Bud Club Family Picnic. You couldn’t really call that first weekend as an intern a baptism by fire. Really, if anything, it was an attempted drowning. They say when it rains in pours and it definitely poured on Saturday. The 4H Lego dragons raised money during the plant fair by providing a plant taxi and accepting donations in return. The members of the club got soaked but I was amazed at the positivity within the group. I’m sure the rain kept some people from attending the event but it was still bigger than I was expecting.

After a very short weekend we went back to work on Monday. Due to the snow weeks and standardized testing, 4H club meetings in local elementary schools got pushed back and it just so happens that  four days this week we are launching rockets that the students made during a previous meeting. School clubs were interesting because you could see how different teaching styles impacted the students. Some teachers had very firm control over their class, while others gave more slack. What was really cool was that when we launched the rockets we would always announce 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place and usually, the top rockets all belonged to either all boys, or all girls and that trend would hold true through the whole school. You could tell that some schools and teachers would put a greater emphasis on science and math skills with girls.

From launching rockets in the day to attending meetings that night we had an incredibly busy week. Each night we had another meeting or banquet for different clubs within 4H and all of these varied greatly. From Hot Stoves on Monday night to Teen Leadership Academy graduation on Thursday, our week was all over the board. I know that in Extension I’ll never get tired of doing the same thing over and over again!