Coming to a Close - by Brian Wathen

My mentor Ben Beale and Alan Leslie talking with the farmers about disease and weed management

With my last week of my internship coming to a close, I want to thank everyone for the experience and the knowledge that I acquired during my time as an Extension intern. It has really been educational and at the same time fun working one on one with my mentor Ben and learning more about Extension and the services they provide. Most of my week has been busy, going out to take some water samples, harvesting our heirloom tomatoes for the week and preparing for and attending the twilight tour at a local Mennonite farm in St. Mary’s County. I had made signs for our hot set trial to label the different cultivars, signs for different cover crop trials that the farmer had tried, and to label a small herbicide demo that Ben had sprayed. I was also gathering equipment and supplies so I could set up another tomato taste test at the tour. We had several specialists talk more about what diseases that are popping up in our area and different management techniques so farmers could implement them into their own management plans. We also made some homemade ice cream and had plenty of snacks for our visitors before the tour. I was interested to see the ice cream machine Dave Myers had built. I am looking forward to finishing my internship on a good note and staying connected with my network that I have created through this internship as I continue my studies and focus on a career path in Agriculture.

I think that empathy in the workplace is important for me as I continue in my career path. I like to think it is one of the many skills to have when working with others that we tend to look past. Continuing forward I can use this newfound information to be more empathetic whenever I enter the workplace. I try to keep an open mind about everything, and my firsthand experiences have helped me have empathy for others. Everyone has a story and their own experiences so giving them time to focus on the problems at hand is key in my book because I could have gone through the same thing. Being mindful about this skill can support me as I think about potential careers in agriculture because I can try and relate to and build new networks with different people, even some with the same experiences as my own.

A picture I took during our twilight tour. You can see the hot set tomatoes to the right side where I had

made our label signs.