Professional Development Blog Post #3: My Internship

This past summer was one of the busiest, but greatest summers ever. It flew by and I definitely didn’t want it to end, but life goes on and I have to follow God’s plan for my life. This summer I completed an amazing internship, spent time with my family and met a cowboy.

But summer is over.

I am back on the The Hill.

And I’m loving it.

This summer I have grown so much professionally and personally. I was given the opportunity to intern with the University of Arkansas Extension Service in the Animal Science Department at the Little Rock State Office. Working for UAEX has been one of the best experiences. I think God put me where I am for a reason. I’ve traveled across the state of Arkansas meeting so many new people and learning what the extension service has to offer.

During the summer many of my family members asked me, “So Carol Ann, what do you do every day?” and that is probably one of the hardest questions to answer. There is no such thing as a “normal” day in extension. I did a lot of picture-taking and social media posting, for sure. There are specialists within the Animal Science Department and I got to work with each of them.

My summer internship started with Mr. Kenny Simon, the Pasture and Forages Program Associate. We built electric fence in Hot Spring County as a demonstration my second day on the job. I learned that people are able to go to their county office, or county agents may see a need for education in an area and contact a state specialist or program associate. In this case, it was electric fencing, and boy I was not ready for that. It was hot and the sun was beating down on us, but I actually learned a lot about electric fencing for cattle. We then went to Polk County to Visit Holly Springs Homestead, where Kenny gave them recommendations on the best way to kill weeds in a new pasture they bought. They had bought the pasture so expand their operation and grow corn for a corn maze and pumpkins for a pick-your-own pumpkin patch in the fall. Holly Springs Homestead is the hub for agritourism. They have a “Grown in Arkansas” farm and they grow every crop grown in Arkansas. I then ended my first week by visiting Milam Cattle Company in Nevada County (this is also where I met that cowboy I mentioned earlier.) They own and raise over 200 head of cattle. Unfortunately, Southwest Arkansas was receiving little to no rain and the grass just was not growing. It has been very dry this summer for the state of Arkansas and Kenny gave advice on how to get the grass to grow. The same day we went to visit the Experiment Station in Hope. One day Kenny asked me to go help him judge Farm Family of the Year to pick a district winner. We went to a small cow/calf operation in Calhoun County and a layer chicken house operation in Bradley County. I also ended the summer with Kenny by planting corn and pearl millet. These are actually plants to be grown in the fall season, but since the ground conditions are similar this summer, dry and hard, to ones in the winter, we wanted to see if they would grow in Faulkner County. Mr. Kenny Simon taught me a lot about hard work and dedication to the task at hand.

I especially loved the equine events that I got to help out with. When I was a 4-Her, I competed in the 4-H horse shows, so I already knew Dr. Mark Russell, the Equine Specialist. I first got to work with Mark at the Ranch Horse Camp hosted at Diamond TR Ranch in Perry County. 4-Hers got to learn so much from Mark and the agents involved. It takes a special kind of person to work with kids, and it takes a crazy special kind of person to work with kids on horses. I not only learned more horsemanship skills; I learned how to teach riders. For a week in July, I stayed in White County at the Arkansas 4-H Horse Show. It takes a lot of planning, but I learned that I have a love for event planning because of this internship. Dr. Russell taught me that sometimes you need to be confident and show off what you know, but most of the time it is important to stay humble.

A big chunk of my internship was spent with Dr. Chelsey Ahrens, the Small Ruminants/ Youth 4-H Livestock Specialist. The first thing we did was travel to the Conway County Fairgrounds for a beef cattle show clinic which was on our way to the 4-State Dairy Days at the Benton County Fairgrounds. Dairy Days was such an eye opener to an industry that I know little about since my family raises beef cattle. People came from the four states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Dairy Days consists of a cattle show, dairy livestock skills contest, dairy judging contest, milk quality and products contest, dairy quiz bowl and livestock show cram packed into three days. I think my favorite part about dairy days was eating all of the ice cream made from the family farms! Then we traveled down to Washington County to the U of A for Livestock Judging Camp where Bryan Kutz taught 4-Hers how to judge livestock and give an outstanding set of reasons. The next week, Chelsey and I, along with county agents and agriculture teachers, traveled to Grey Summit, Missouri to Purina Farms. Purina Ambassadors taught us all about their feed and the livestock show industry. I learned a lot about myself this trip and I improved on basic soft skills. Talking to random people from all over the country seems very intimidating at first, but once you realize that you all have the same interest, like showing livestock, you find out its not all that scary. Chelsey also put me in charge of the District O’Rama Animal Science contests. Ozark district was held at the College of the Ozarks in Johnson County, Ouachita district was at Ouachita High School in Hot Spring County and Delta district was held at East Arkansas Community College in St. Francis County. Chelsey and I also traveled to Newton County and held a livestock show clinic for new 4-Hers. Chelsey also runs the Livestock Skills contest at District and State O’Rama so Hot Spring and Clark Counties asked for our help to study and learn about the contest. We also went to Camp Couchdale for agriculture teachers and taught them the changes to the Livestock Skills Contests held at State Fair in October. State 4-H O’Rama was hectic as Chelsey and I ran the Animal Science and Livestock Skills Contest. After that, we went back to Conway County to teach a hog showmanship clinic. I ended my time with Chelsey at the Arkansas Cattlemen’s Convention in Little Rock. We checked out the cattle industry and visited with those who sponsor us.

Dr. Shane Gadberry, the Beef Nutrition Specialist, had asked me if I could create a brochure and poster for the Natural State Preconditioned Calf Program. I love graphic design and knew it would be a great way to sharpen my skills, so I did it! It had a great response from everyone in the animal science department and county agents across the state. Dr. Gadberry presented the GoGREEN program at the Cattlemen’s Convention with my poster and brochure. It was awesome seeing something I’ve created brought to life.

I was also involved in Vet Science Camp with Dr. Heidi Ward, the Extension Veterinarian, doing public relations work by taking photos and writing an article about the event. Dr. John Jennings, the Forages Specialist, asked me to help on UAEX’s website for plant identification.

I met so many extension agents and employees from around the state who took me under their wing during events and conferences that I could tell really loved their job. It made me rethink a couple of career and life goals, but at the end of the day the quote, “find a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life” is a prime example of extension. I gained social media experience by being exposed to Facebook analytics, something that I have never used before. I learned so much about the Animal Science Department and the University of Arkansas as a whole by just simply being present and listening. By just working with every staff member in the department, I was able to gain an understanding of their day to day career.

Throughout my classes at the U of A, I have obtained so many skills and through out my internship, I had to put them to the test. In my graphic design class, I learned so much about design that I was able to use in my internship. Technical skills like that really helped me in the social media duties and creating the poster and brochure for the GoGREEN project. I felt prepared for the tasks that came my way. I gained responsibility and organizational skills from classes. I had this burning passion for agriculture and social media marketing and branding. What I wasn’t prepared for was that I fell in love... with extension education that is. I was not prepared to meet so many encouraging people who truly cared about my future.

Throughout my internship I have learned a lot about myself. I found some weaknesses that I probably would not have found in a classroom setting. It is nice to catch these early before I get into my career.

I am definitely not the same intern on May 21^st than I am now.

There were many late nights, early nights and overnight trips. I tried my best to stay positive and not complain, because I know how lucky I was to be in my position.

This has been such a wonderful opportunity and I would deeply encourage anyone to apply for this internship. I am an Agriculture Communications major and pursuing a minor in Leadership who had an internship in Animal Science. All I can say is get out of your comfort zone and learn something new. My advice to future interns of this amazing department is to journal every day. It is so fun to look back at all you did and accomplished this summer. Make sure to get out and explore all this world has to offer (within reason.) If you don’t know what something means, or are completely confused by directions, or just plain overwhelmed, breathe, and just ask. Don’t be afraid to give your opinion and do not forget to be yourself!

In all honesty, I was worried about not being offered an internship this past summer. I was only getting rejection emails and letters which was a bit discouraging. I felt a little defeated going into my interview for my internship. I presented myself the best I could and answered every question the animal science team asked. By the end of the interview, I felt confident, but I was unsure if I was even going to get it. Instead of dwelling on the issue, I just prayed and said, “God, if you want me to get this internship, you’ll let me have it.” 

And sure enough, three days later Chelsey called me and offered me the internship. And the rest is history.

God puts us exactly where He needs us to be.