I split my community service hours in half between assisting the facilitation of a summer reading program and spending the rest of my time at my local extension office. I’m always looking for ways to better my organizational skills and I believe helping at an extension office was a way for me to practice that and work on my people skills. I chose this place because I knew that help was always welcome. At the extension office there’s always something in need of being set up, taken down, moved, rearranged or thrown away. I wouldn’t say I found any aspect of working there to be extremely challenging, although there is something that always manages to leave an imprint on me. The office affects a vast amount of people in my town and I am witness to the many events and organizations that the extension office deals directly with. I see the impact of what that place is responsible for firsthand. That is just a little something I try to take away from with all of my internships – I try and find how the place fits into my hometown and who they affect day to day.
At the summer reading program hosted at the library I helped set up seating arrangements, organized snacks (even sliced a few fruits and veggies), passed out arts and crafts, and cleaned up after everything was said and done. Some adults that came into the extension office weren’t always bright and cheery but the kids at the summer reading program never failed to make me laugh with curious questions and were energetic in everything they did. I would say the library was the more interesting of the two experiences for the sole reason the kids put a smile on my face. The kids left me in a better mood than they found me in and some days that’s all you really need!
