Undergraduate students gain hands-on experience in community engagement and research-related opportunities through Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) internships.
Summer interns based in New York City support projects like the Choose Health Action Teens (CHAT) program, where teens teach the Choose Health: Food, Fun, and Fitness (CHFFF) curriculum to middle school youth. Undergraduate summer interns contribute to this project by mentoring teens and preparing them to engage with youth.
Interns serve an important role in CCE programs—sometimes by bringing new ideas and approaches to the table. In 2020, after COVID-19 shutdowns threatened to disrupt CHAT programming, summer interns were well-equipped to translate the CHFFF curriculum into an engaging and accessible online format. “[Intern] skills were invaluable in converting the curriculum into something hands on and engaging,” said Wendy Wolfe, a research associate with the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program in the Division of Nutritional Sciences, in an interview. In 2021 and 2022, summer interns supported the transition back to in-person programming, drawing on the virtual resources and other innovations developed during 2020.
When you support Cornell Human Ecology this Giving Day, you support CCE internship opportunities and give Cornell students an opportunity to do research-based extension work in New York City and throughout New York state.
Photo: Summer interns, Deborah Ogunribido and Jaylyn Senise present at the 2022 Global and Public Health Experiential Learning Symposium