Two Coldwater High School alumni one a freshman and another a senior at Ohio State University spent their summer studying and working aboard with the OSU Extension, Darke County.
Freshman, Rose, graduate high school just a year ago and is at OSU to study Agronomy, farm production and management. During her recent winter break instead of going home and enjoying a rest period of no school she jumped at the opportunity to study aboard in Nicaragua to learn about the county’s agriculture.
Rose, who tries to get involved in as many agriculture social groups at school as possible like the Agriculture Education Society and Weeds Team didn’t hesitate to travel to another country to learn about what she enjoyed.
She traveled to Nicaragua with the primary purpose of learning about the country’s coffee business. She said the best part of their trip was getting to stand so close and swim inside an extinct volcano.
This summer she interned locally. It less of an adventure than Nicaragua but she got some hands-on learning experience through the OSU Agricultural extension program, working at their various offices in Midwest Ohio like Mercer, Darke, and Auglaize counties, as well as a few others. Her summer internship was mostly focused on collecting information from different research projects for OSU educators.
Rose said she plans to use her experience and education at OSU to hopefully get herself a job as an agronomist in Ohio so she can stay local.
Another OSU extension participant was senior Logan, who is attending OSU to study a similar field as Rose – Agriscience Education; he is also a Colwater native and grew up on a farm.
During Logan’s summer study aboard semester he traveled to Honduras and was there for over two weeks to learn about the local culture and community development. He plans to take what he has learned with OSU to land himself a career in teaching others about agriculture.
Logan had said he was excited to get to participate in Darke County’s summer extension program though OSU because it will allow him to learn about his areas of interest which is agriculture and natural resources, as well as youth programs like 4-H and development, as well as matters in family and consumer sciences.
As part of his internship through OSU’s Darke County’s summer extension program he will be required to attend may local events through the county’s 4-H organization like their junior camp, fair board meeting, as well as many 4-H contests and working with the family and consumer sciences programs in the Darke County’s schools.
4-H is an agriculture based youth organization similar to Future Farmers of America clubs in public schools across the state and the country. It’s a great way for young people to get a head start on learning about the various aspects of agriculture like farming, growing plants and caring and raising quality livestock. This organization also teaches students the role of local farms and its importance.
