Catrina the Comfy Cub

I have enjoyed my time working for Laura and Joanna at the UGA Athens-Clarke Extension office. I had my own cubicle to do all my work such as putting the farmers market carts together, and other tasks. I am thankful that I was picked to intern with the office, and gain experiences from them.  One of my biggest takeaways during this internship is to always be open minded, and to go with the flow because you never know what you will be assigned or what will happen throughout the day. My first day I had no clue what was planned, but Laura took me to Pittard Park in Winterville, Georgia to take me to meet Sherrie, who is head of running Marigold Market. Laura told me about Marigold Market in the car, and Sherrie explained it more to me and what she does. That day I thought I would be doing office work, but I went with the flow, and ended up going somewhere I had never been before.  In addition, being able to work at Marigold Market has made a huge impact on developing my professio...

As an intern for UGA Athens-Clarke County Extension I have learned a lot, and I have done some reflecting on my strengths and weaknesses.  I knew coming into this experience that I would have different tasks, so I told myself to keep an open mind. However, little did I know what all went on in an extension office, and I did not expect that I would be sorting seeds or putting together farmers market carts. All the tasks that Laura and Joanna have assigned me to have helped me identify some of my strengths and weaknesses. A strength that I have is my communication skills. On most Saturdays, I worked at the Marigold Market, and I helped sell produce and communicate with the community. I am able to effectively talk to the people who come to the market, and I enjoy connecting with people who come to the market every Saturday. Another strength is being creative. Throughout the summer I had been asked to create flyers, stickers, etc., and write on chalkboards for signs. In the office, I r...

Over the course of my time with the UGA Athens-Clarke County Extension Office and Marigold Market, there have not been many issues that the office has come across; however, like I blogged about in previous week, social media has been a challenge/issue. It might not be the biggest concern, but it is something I have observed to be a challenge.  As an intern, I looked at social media, mainly Instagram, and compared their Instagram to similar Instagrams. For example, for the Marigold Market Instagram, I looked at their content, and then went to Athens Farmers Market Instagram because the Athens Farmers Market has been around for a lot longer than the Marigold Market. The Marigold Market Instagram needs to have a schedule to post and interact with the community through social media kind of like the other markets. Also, to showcase the vendors that come to the market.  In addition, I also observed that having time to do little tasks can be challenging because there is so much to do...

The community is the key stakeholder to the Athens-Clarke County Extension Office. The Athens-Clarke community includes homeowners, gardeners, landscapers, farmers, etc. Almost everything that comes out of the office is for the community, and it is made to help inform them about different things and benefit them. Community engagement is important for the office because each year the office has to send to the county how many emails they send out, how many people go to the farmers markets, and other information about what is out for the community to receive.  In addition, many of the things I do targets the community. For example, in my last blog I talked about the social media strategy, and social media helps with informing the community on what we are doing in the office and at the market. Instagram helps with engaging the community in the stories and posts on the feed. Also, I sort and bag seeds that people can get at any three of the farmers markets on Saturday at the UGA Extensi...

Social media is important to putting information out for the public to see. My main project is to help improve the presence of Marigold Market and the Athens-Clarke County Extension Garden on Instagram and partially on Facebook.  The first thing I did was reference my own Instagram, and see what has previously worked on it. For me, I post mainly on my story with polls and questions for people to respond to, and that helps with the engagement on the profile. Also, I make a post every now and then, and at the end I ask a question to get people to comment on the post. In addition, on certain days I take time to engage with other people's posts such as liking, commenting and even sharing others' posts with polls or comments about them. These are some things that have worked for my Instagram, so I created a social media strategy for the Marigold Market and the Athens-Clarke County Extension Garden Instagram. The strategies show what to do on that day such as post, story or engagemen...

 Almost half-way through my eight week journey with UGA Extension in Athens-Clarke County, and I am having a blast.  When accepting this position I was unsure of what it takes to be part of an extension office, and all the day-to-day responsibilities. I asked those questions during my interview, but being in the office is completely different. I enjoy coming into the office with different tasks being handed to me, and each day is different than the last.  During my first week, Dr. Ney and Joanna asked me to sort seeds, and I was clueless when they asked me to sort them by cool and warm season. Luckily, they provided me with the information I needed, and told me which ones were cool and warm seasons. Then, I was asked to complete a task of creating a comment card for the garden that is located in the back of the extension office. If Dr. Ney did not provide some examples and guidance I would have been a little lost on how to make a comment card. In other words, I need to im...