By Sarah Bailey

Hello Rowan community member. My name is Sarah Bailey and I am your Rowan County Cooperative Extension summer intern. I wanted to give y’all a little update on how the summer has been going. We have held many 4-H Summer Fun Sessions this summer. These sessions are an amazing opportunity for kids in the community to come in and have a great time learning about something new, and creating something in the process. To name a few that have already occurred we had Robotics, Needle to Thread, and Sweet, Sweet Honey. I have enjoyed working with all the kids and I look forward to closing out the summer with our final two sessions, Arranging Cut Flowers and Fun in the Garden. 

Another portion of the summer involved going out into the field with my agents to assist farmers. This has been a great opportunity, since I am studying crop and soil sciences at N.C. State. Field work is an exciting way to gain firsthand experience and knowledge and my agents could not have been more helpful. I have accompanied Morgan Watts for a wheat yield entry, Amy-Lynn Albertson and Shelby Carroll to test for tomato spotted wilt virus and Shelby Carroll on a few farm visits. 

In addition to the Summer Fun Sessions and field work, I had the pleasure of assisting Laura Allen and Morgan Watts with our 4-H Poultry Judging team. Over this past summer Laura, Morgan and I have held practices for our judgers to work on their skills to prepare for the contest. During these practices, they studied parts of the chicken, ready-to-cook parts and carcasses, interior and exterior eggs, and more. We had one individual senior and two junior teams compete and the competition was Wednesday, July 10, at N.C. State’s campus. I am proud to share that one of our junior teams placed third and two of those judgers placed second and third as overall junior individuals. 

This has been an amazing experience interning with Rowan Extension. My agents have truly helped me to grow both personally and professionally. Thank you for allowing me to serve the Rowan community this summer!

Sarah Bailey is an intern with the Rowan County Extension.