70 Days. 10 Weeks. Once in a lifetime experience.How do you touch the lives of the people that you meet?
This is a question I find myself asking pretty frequently. My whole life I have known that I wanted to enter a career field where I could continually touch the lives of those around me so when I found an internship that did just that, I knew it would be a perfect fit for me. My name is Emalee Rabinovitch and I am about to graduate from Oregon State University with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Public Health and Education. One of my final tasks here at OSU was to find an internship that aligned with the same values and outcomes as my degree. After doing a bit of searching, I came across the PROMISE Program. |
The PROMISE program is a ten-week internship experience that provides opportunities in state and local government agencies, as well as university programs for Oregon State University undergraduate students. These internships are intended to provide students with a pathway to a professional career with an emphasis on helping underrepresented students. After getting accepted into the program, PROMISE coordinators set up a number of interviews for students in order to find an internship site that best understands their career aspirations and needs. On April 26th, 2016 I received an email from one of the coordinators saying I had gotten a joint offer from OSU University Outreach and Engagement and Extension Services. Before I knew it I was set up and ready to go in Ballard Extension Hall on campus.
My first week consisted of getting to know the new faces around me while diving head-first into what Extension was all about. My main project while interning here at Outreach & Engagement was to create a one- page, double- sided marketing tool to inform readers about how Extension was influencing the lives of community members in Oregon’s counties. The goal of the marketing tool is for it to be customizable for each county to use in order to inform more people about the resources provided through their local Extension offices. Starting with Clatsop County, I was able to visit the office in Astoria and meet their very welcoming staff members as well as see the work they were doing. By being directly out in the county, I was able to see the impact these programs had on the members of the community and the positive changes being made.
My first week consisted of getting to know the new faces around me while diving head-first into what Extension was all about. My main project while interning here at Outreach & Engagement was to create a one- page, double- sided marketing tool to inform readers about how Extension was influencing the lives of community members in Oregon’s counties. The goal of the marketing tool is for it to be customizable for each county to use in order to inform more people about the resources provided through their local Extension offices. Starting with Clatsop County, I was able to visit the office in Astoria and meet their very welcoming staff members as well as see the work they were doing. By being directly out in the county, I was able to see the impact these programs had on the members of the community and the positive changes being made.
I met Ann for the first time during my interview for the positon back in April and could tell immediately she had a great sense of creativity and dedication. Eric Dunker, Regional Administrator for the Coastal Regions, also accompanied her in my interview and has been and outstanding mentor in this process as well. I admire Eric’s passion to get out there and be hands on in order to give the communities what they need. I saw this is both Eric and Ann while getting to know them professionally and personally in these past ten weeks. Both are extremely driven individuals who want to make a difference and educate people about what Extension Services have to offer. I feel very fortunate to have met these two and to have had the chance to be mentored by them. They taught me much more than they signed up to do and provided me with excellent resources as I graduate and enter the “real world.”
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After learning so much about the division, it brought me back to asking myself, “How do you touch the lives of the people that you meet?” University Outreach and Engagement and Extension Services do this every day. I never knew 10 weeks could go by so fast but in my time being here I was able to see incredible staff members make positive changes for the communities and people they cared for. The programs offered are directly touching the lives of neighbors, friends, local business owners and many more as well as letting local stakeholders be involved in the decision making process. Each faculty member touches the lives of those they interact with and has had a significant influence in making my time here great. As I go on in my future endeavors I hope to educate more people about Extension resources and how they can benefit everyone involved. I may be just an Intern, but after this experience I feel like I have the necessary tools in my toolbox to go out into society and touch the lives of those around me because of what I have learned from my time here at Outreach and Engagement.
You can also find a copy of this blog post on the University Outreach and Engagement blog post.
PROMISE Presentation
I created a poster representing what I did during my time as a PROMISE intern. On the last day of the term, we presented these to our mentors and other members of the 2016 PROMISE cohort.
OSU Extension Service Marketing Tool
During my time here at OSU Extension Service I aided in the development of a marketing tool for Extension offices to use around the state. The primary focus of this marketing tool is to educate people about what Extension has to offer them. Many people may not know all the wonderful programs and education OSU Extension Service has to offer and the goal of this tool is for it to be customized by each county to best represent what their county is doing for the surrounding communities. I was able to start with Clatsop County and see the project come to life by working with my supervisors and University Marketing. The next project to tackle is a regional piece that can summarize what the regions are doing with Extension.