For Sammi Lin ’24, who spent her summer in New York City working with urban farmers, including refugees from Burma, immigrants from East Africa and the Caribbean, and seventh-generation Americans reconnecting with agriculture, the lessons went much deeper than the soil.
“I feel like I’ve grown so much as a person beyond just developing my technical farming skills,” said Lin, an international agriculture and rural development major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Lin was among 27 students who participated in the 2021 Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) Summer Internship program, engaging in purpose-driven science with communities across New York state.
From June to August, CCE county associations and Regional Agriculture Programs across the state hosted students from the CALS, the College of Human Ecology and the College of Arts and Sciences as they worked on projects that included enhancing soil management at community farms in New York City, co-locating solar and agricultural land use in the Southern Tier, facilitating and developing curriculum for a teen anti-racism group in the Hudson Valley, and analyzing farmers markets in the Finger Lakes.
“Working collaboratively, the students, Cornell faculty and CCE educators share up close, hands-on personal experiences that are mutually beneficial to each other as well as communities across New York state,” CCE Director Christopher Watkins said at the 2021 CCE Summer Internship Reception, held Sept. 29 in the Biotechnology Building.
At the reception, students, faculty and CCE mentors joined together to celebrate and reflect on what for many students described as life-changing experiences. The event also featured comments from Katherine McComas, vice provost for engagement and land-grant affairs; Rachel Dunifon, the Rebecca Q. and James C. Morgan Dean of the College of Human Ecology; and Ben Houlton, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of CALS.
