CORVALLIS, Ore. — From its inception in 2020, the Oregon State University Extension Service Internship Program was meant to spark an interest in pursuing a career with the organization.
Four former interns went on to land jobs with OSU Extension, and three are current employees.
The Extension internship provides opportunities for interns to gain hands-on experience as an Extension employee. Interns assist with Extension at county fairs, both support and create youth and adult programs and conduct agricultural research.
Interns benefit from this unique environment and grow from the mentoring offered by the Extension staff and from what they learn from the communities they serve.
Summer interns range from recent high school graduates to graduate students, working in all of Extension’s program areas. Interns come from all fields of study and from campuses across the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
Maggie Justice, 4-H/SNAP-Ed program coordinator in Gilliam County, interned in Grant County in 2020. Justice’s internship focused on 4-H, with opportunities to see the behind-the-scenes work for fair and other 4-H events. Although she had participated in 4-H, Justice said she didn’t know about the scope of the behind-the-scenes work.
“I had not realized the work that staff went through in putting on those events,” Justice said. “My experience as an intern allowed me to see and appreciate the benefits of 4-H as an adult. I truly saw and appreciated the impact that it had on young people.”
The internship gives interns opportunities to build workplace skills, like working independently and on teams, Justice said. The internship also helps solidify intern career interests and paths.
“My experience helped me to find a career that I was interested in,” she said. “I am very thankful for the opportunities it gave me.”
Crystal Kelso interned in Small Farms Program in Linn, Lane, and Benton counties in the summer of 2022. Today Kelso is an educational program assistant for the small farms and Forestry and Natural Resources programs in Linn and Benton counties.
“My internship gave me in-the-field experience to work directly with a variety of farmers and organizations,” Kelso said. “It also gave me the space to explore avenues in farming that I'm passionate about, and look forward to growing more in.”
Kelso’s internship provided multiple opportunities in public speaking, event organization, communication and public education outreach, she said.
“An internship is a foot in the door to a variety of experiences and connections that I think would have been difficult to make on my own,” she said.
Kelci Free interned in 2021 and 2022 with the Extension groundwater protection and education program in the mid-Willamette Valley.
“There are so many different programs and projects that you will be exposed to and be able to learn about or get involved in,” said Free, now an educational program assistant in Lincoln County.
The internship can be tailored to an intern’s interests and goals depending on the program needs. That was the case with Free, who graduated from OSU in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural sciences.
“There is something you can learn from everyone in this internship no matter what your major is,” Free said. “The internship allowed me to see that the needs are different for each county we worked in and how to work with those communities and be able to change what isn’t working on the fly.”
Interns share their experiences through blog posts.
The Extension internship application period begins each year by mid-February with deadlines typically in March or April.
