Week 1: June 1st – June 4th

I used this week to familiarize myself with the project, the general topic of Agriculture/Solar Colocation, and CCE Tioga County. Since my first week was virtual, I made sure to spend time outside when I wasn’t working (see picture below).

My favorite part of the week was getting to meet the people I will be working with this summer. I attended a virtual welcome meeting with my supervisor, field mentors and faculty sponsor to kick off my project. On Thursday, I was able to attend my first CCE Tioga all-staff meeting. I got to meet the awesome team of CCE Tioga women who shared updates about their programs and gave me a window into how a county Extension office operates on the ground. I was inspired by the scope of community programming CCE Tioga covers and I look forward to getting to work with the staff members this summer. I ended the week by attending the bi-weekly Ag-Solar discussion meeting where the CCE educators present helped me begin to compile ideas for the stakeholder interviews I will conduct during my summer project.

I used the rest of my time this week to complete onboarding tasks and read information online about CCE Tioga and colocation of Ag and Solar production. I also finished watching recordings of the CCE Educator Ag-Solar Summit that I was able to attend in part in early May. I now feel that I have established a strong foundation of knowledge about Tioga County, CCE Tioga, and Ag-Solar topics, and I feel more prepared to jump into my project next week.A young woman is pictured wearing a Cornell t-shirt in front of a green, grassy backdrop and blue skies.