Phil Nguyen

Hi readers,

I tried a simpler approach for the last blog post. But I felt the writing was disjointed so I will be writing more cohesive paragraphs and split them by dates.

I think this week was especially noteworthy because I attended the MACAA tour. MACAA stands for the Maryland Association of County Agricultural Agents. Over the course of three days, I got to see a lot of farms and other people on the extension team which was really cool.

2025-6-9 (Monday)

On Monday I was very sick so I actually did not do too much work. But I did attend the intern connection meeting over zoom. Today's meeting was led by Daniel Gustitis with the guest speaker Michele Walfred. I think the discussion regarding personal brand was very interesting because a lot of our presentation in the professional world is online. How you present yourself can inform potential employers.

2025-6-10 (Tuesday)

Fortunately, I managed to get over my cold. I was able to attend the in-service. I met a lot of cool people from other counties. Here, we gathered into groups to discuss possible future goals for committees. I managed to find myself in the urban ag and fruits and vegetables groups.

I think a lot of people were touching upon things that I didn't fully grasp yet. For example, one issue that extension might need to solve involves the process of engaging small farmers marketing themselves. For example, a farmer may choose to market themselves as organic, beyond organic, or conventional. However, scaling to a more profitable model may be unachievable or even undesirable for some. Therefore, helping to clarify each farmer's vision is crucial to create a sustainable model of agriculture.

The second half of the day involved some interesting keynote presentations. Like the changing the space between lines of watermelons, the benefits of combining herds of cow with flocks of sheep, growing mushrooms, and even facilitating Kenyan agriculture. In a way, it really reminded me of the SGA back at Salisbury. Funny how some things never really change.

2025-6-11 (Wednesday)

Okay but Wednesday was really fun. I got to so many farms (thanks Maxine for driving Xuan and I all day). We ended up missing the first location because we went the the second. So we stopped by the Double T Diner. It was my first time too. I got to see a variety of farms each with different specialties.

I think the most interesting one was the lavender farm which smelled really nice. They had an interesting process of distilling plants for a compound called hydrosol: a substance commonly found in toner. Otherwise, I liked seeing the pesticide drone and the pounded feed for cows. 

2025-6-12 (Thursday)

I actually sat in for the business meeting today. But I think I was not able to contribute much as I didn't know enough about MACAA yet. But I think I was reminded of the student government. Originally, I was on the finance board, so voting on things and engaging in discussion regarding rules and guidelines was the most familiar part of the day for me. I did happen to leave early though to go back to Princess Anne.

2025-6-13 (Friday)

Another day at the Somerset office. I was mostly working on entering some important survey data. In the past several months, meetings were held where farmers would go and answer surveys regarding their experience with extension. I was tasked with entering data from Harford and Washington.

While there was a lot of data to handle, I was able to finish it before leaving for the rest of the day. Other than that, I started on inventory in the shed.

Overall, this week was super interesting. I think one example of communication was in using google chat (first time using it in my life). Overall, I think the method can be effective because it lends itself to quicker, less formal communication on my end. But it would be wiser to not expect an immediate response with this method. Especially when people have email and texts.

I think one thing I want to work on is updating my Linkedin Profile by adding this internship on the page!