The world of urban agriculture is so vast and varied, in ways I could have never imagined before this summer. From backyard planters to goat pens to hundreds of acres of woodland, Baltimore City agriculture has an incredible community.
My name is Bridget Duffy, I am from Ellicott City, MD, and I am a Sustainable Agriculture Certificate Candidate at the Institute of Applied Agriculture. This summer I was a Workforce Development Intern at the Baltimore City Extension Office.
My main responsibility was to work on a research team, helping to map food self-provisioning networks in Baltimore City. I was tasked mostly with transcribing audio, inputting demographic data, typing field notes, and other similar tasks on days I spent in the office, which was the majority of my summer. When we had actual site visits to map out garden areas, I would be taking soil samples from the growing areas of each site, creating maps of the regions and measuring the dimensions, logging what plants they grow and where. Or if we were interviewing people at fishing locations, I would be interviewing fishers about their demographic, the uses for the fish that they catch, how important it is to supply their community, and other related questions.
Outside of my project, I was certainly kept busy. One of the facilitators of my internship cohort Andrea, had me help write the monthly beginning farmer newsletter that she sent out on the first of each month. I also was responsible for creating weekly blog posts that showed what I did each week, and as a way to reflect on workplace expectations. Many Extension and AGNR faculty kept up with our blog posts, to see what was going on throughout the summer.
There were plenty of highlights from the summer, such as learning new things and meeting new people. My personal favorite was shadowing our office’s SNAP educators during their nutrition classes at summer school programs. I got to play games with them in order to get them engaged, set up their snacks for the class period, and helped teach them that healthy eating can be colorful and delicious. It was pretty much my only opportunity during the summer to work with kids, and I really enjoyed it. If you teach them something and show that you are really passionate about it, they’re eager to learn. After my last class, my mentor Neith got an email from Rachel, the SNAP educator that said, “I just wanted to say thank you for allowing Bridget to come to class with me yesterday! The class went smoothly because of her. She was a BIG help with setting up the tastings and assisting the kids. Her positive attitude and willingness to help were greatly appreciated.” I was honored that she went as far as to tell my mentor, and I was proud of myself for keeping a positive attitude.
I couldn’t have asked for a better internship opportunity. I met amazing mentors, fellow interns, and so many people in relevant fields. If I had not been required by my certificate path to pursue an internship this summer, I would never have made all the connections I have today. I got to meet people who provide food for their communities free of charge, I took a tour of UMD to see all the ongoing research projects, and most importantly, I learned a lot about myself. This was a much-needed wake-up call to what the world of agriculture needs from the next generation, and the opportunities that are there for me to do what I love. I have seen the wide variety of opportunities that extension has to offer and the amazing people who work hard every day to make it possible.
