A picture of me after a day of working as a new UME intern! š
Hi, I’m Kendall Weingard and I am very excited to participate in this internship with University of Maryland Extension. I am a rising senior at Salisbury University pursuing a biology degree. I have hopes to work with a government agency and use the diverse field of biology to problem solve for the community. My favorite niche of biology is environmental biology. I love plants and animals! I hope to contribute to conservation and make efforts to preserve our beautiful environment and the organisms occupying it.
This week it has been a pleasure to meet my mentor Dr. Sara Hirsh, the agriculture extension agent for Somerset County. Dr.Hirsh has involvement in many projects, crop management and education. She received her PHD from the University of Maryland and has a background in cover crops, agronomy, water management and plant biodiversity.
I am eager to be involved in projects such as her cover crop project, cultivating conservation, and transition to organics, as well as potentially helping with teaching tools. Thus far I have enjoyed meeting extension staff and sitting in on meetings regarding plan proposals. I find it beneficial to see how government and non-profit funded projects form into a final product. I am very interested in the cover crop project where agents will be working with farmers and partner, Future Harvest, a non-profit organization, to increase soil health. Using cover crops will help the farmers to establish a healthy soil addressing potential problems with previous money crops. Just this week I have learned so much about cover crops and the importance of introducing cover cropping to farmers. She also described her other project called “Cultivating Conservation” which is aimed to increase knowledge of government programs and conservation for historically underserved farmers. I hope to get opportunities to assist with these programs and workshops to educate the public.
I look forward to applying my education in biology to real life projects that will benefit the environment and the community. This internship is a great opportunity for me to network and practice public outreach. I hope that I can build upon and practice my professionalism. Prior to this experience I really did not consider agriculture as a career path. After learning about how agriculture has so many career opportunities and is so impactful on the environment and the economy, a career in agriculture may be a contender for me!
This is an image of the UME website where it explains the cultivating conservation project for Maryland and Delaware. This is a project Dr. Hirsh is working on and I hope to assist her with.
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