Summer Internship Program: Henrico County

Primary Program Area Focus:   ANR  

1. Describe your plans for this internship.  (i.e. What specifically will the intern be doing?)

The intern will work primarily with the ANR agent, but will also work with the 4-H agent and the FCS agent to gain a better knowledge of the breadth of programming in Virginia Cooperative Extension.

The focus will be on the following tasks:

Diagnostic Lab:

• Work with the ANR Agent and dedicated Master Gardener volunteers in the Henrico Extension Diagnostic Lab. 

• Identify plant diseases and insect identification on samples submitted to the lab

• Weekly duties include: Database management, lab report development, newsletters and client follow-up. Intern will create a bi-weekly newsletter for distribution to the Master Gardeners and local green industry based on laboratory findings.

Master Gardener Support:

• Assist Master Gardener efforts, especially summer events prep 

• Work with agent, staff and MG volunteers to market programs to the community

Communication:

• Write several articles for the ANR newsletter to be published in September and December

• Contribute to social media by writing several short informational pieces for Facebook.  These pieces would be on timely turf, vegetable, tree and disease/insect topics.

• The intern will have the opportunity to answers calls related to ANR work from homeowners and seek to answers the questions through research.

Collaborative 4-H Programming with Community Stakeholders 

• coordinate, plan and implement activities

• assemble supplies

• instruct classes and/or workshop(s)

• provide supervision and behavior modeling to youth

• develop curriculum and possibly teach a class

• plan and assist teen and adult counselor trainings and maintain required training records

Family Consumer Sciences programming:

• Assist FCS agent with nutrition, wellness and food safety/preservation programming

Henrico Office Summer Day Camp Series:

• Assist the unit’s agents in late stage planning, preparation and delivery of 5 weeklong summer day camps.

Other:

• Learn about the work done by Soil and Water Conservation Districts since we share an office with the Henricopolis SWCD.

• Other duties as necessary.

• As the internship progresses and new ideas or intern’s interests surface other projects may be included in the plan of work.

2. Describe the knowledge / skills you expect the intern to gain from this experience. 

The intern will gain experience in marketing and communications; time management; public relations and customer service; youth development programs; designing, implementing, and evaluating educational programs; exhibit design; and a basic understanding of horticulture and youth development principles.

3. How will the intern learn about the breadth of VCE and our various program areas?

The Henrico Extension office offers the intern the ability to see the work done in all the programming areas of Extension.  The intern will be exposed to all of the programs that Extension offers in an urban setting in Virginia through working with extension agents covering FCS, 4-H and ANR. Depending on programming, the intern may get hands on experience working with the agents to see the various ways programs are delivered and offered.  A written weekly report will be completed by intern covering their experiences, knowledge gained, and skills enhanced.