On the first of July Purdue Extension officially welcomed a new member to their staff. Recent Purdue West Lafayette graduate Mandy Medbourn is the new health and human sciences extension educator for Starke and Pulaski County. Medbourn had the chance to really immerse her self within the communities during her first full week as a Purdue Extension Educator.
The Pulaski County fair finished up on Thursday so she will begin working at the Starke County 4-H fair today and into next week. She spent the week getting accustomed to her position as a representative for Purdue Extension, “Basically what I’ve been doing down there is meeting people, making connections, getting to know the communities, helping out kind of where-ever is needed.”
Following fair season, Mandy will still have her hands full going through different programs offered through Purdue Extension to see which ones would be most beneficial for individuals in the area. She is very passionate about healthy lifestyle choices. One of her main interests is nutrition education, “I would love to do some nutrition educational programs. Things such as helping people set budgets for food, teaching them how to make a meal plan, how to create healthy meals that kids also like and are good for the family.”
Aside from healthy eating she also likes to promote occupation preparedness. She would like to participate in some programs that assist students and community members with specific skills they may need for future jobs or interviews. She told WKVI news, “Another thing that I am extremely passionate about is job readiness so I would love to be able to go into schools, but also the communities and teach some resume writing workshops, do some mock interviews, how to dress for the interviews. Those skills are really important in the 21rst century so I would really like to be able to work with people in the community to do that.”
Medbourn shared that she was hired on and almost immediately got right to work. She is applying the skills she learned during her college courses while studying for her bachelor’s degree at Purdue University in West Lafayette. As far as first weeks go, Medbourn said she has had a great one despite the challenge of dealing with both fairs right off the bat. She said that everyone she’s met has been friendly and helpful and she looks forward to working more with other Purdue Extension employees in the future.
