4-H, senate page and college days: Braxton County student starts her path as a Mountaineer

With an active interest in learning more about government, Jamie Yoder used the skills she learned in 4-H to land a position working on Capitol Hill and studying at West Virginia University.

While on a group tour in Washington D.C., the Braxton County 4-H’er ventured into Senator Joe Manchin’s office where she met with a team of his representatives. They discussed various programs offered, and the United States Senate Page Program immediately sparked Yoder’s interest. Representatives urged her to seek out further information and report back.

“So, I literally stood in the office and looked it up, and it said to contact your senator’s office for more information. I turned around and asked them about it, and they gave me a card and said to send them my information. Well I did, and I ended up in the program.”

West Virginia Small Farm Conference to help local farmers grow food and communities

Food has a way of bridging divides and bringing people together. And, today, there’s a growing desire among communities, restaurants and schools to use high quality, locally sourced ingredients.

It’s this demand that the West Virginia University Extension Service Small Farm Center sees and is trying to help farmers and growers of all types capitalize on.

“The food system in West Virginia is growing and our farmers are at the root of it all,” said Tom McConnell, WVU Extension Service Small Farm Center program leader. “Each year, West Virginians spend more than $8 billion on food, and we want to provide a comprehensive learning and networking experience to help those farmers get a bigger piece of that pie and meet consumers’ demands.”

The marquee educational event organized and hosted by the WVU Extension Service Small Farm Center is the West Virginia Small Farm Conference with more than 110 classes and nine conference tracks for farmers to take advantage of to help their operations run more efficiently and profitably. The conference takes place in Charleston at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center from Wednesday, Feb. 19 until Saturday, Feb. 22.

Students encouraged to find purpose as volunteers through summer reading program

Each summer, hundreds of volunteers provide life-changing experiences for West Virginia youths. Through the WVU Extension Service Energy Express summer reading program, AmeriCorps members, volunteers and others are helping to enhance reading and comprehension skills for students throughout the state.

Energy Express is an award-winning, six-week reading and nutrition program offered in rural and low-income West Virginia communities. The program helps children entering first through sixth grades overcome the ‘summer slide’ that occurs when youths fall behind academically between school years, while also providing nutritious meals for the students.

Go Red, instead!

On Friday, February 7, people all around the nation will don red to support “Go Red for Women,” an initiative of the American Heart Association to raise awareness for heart health.
 
So, to show our support, we are encouraging our WVU Extension Service colleagues to put the gold and blue away, and wear red instead!
 
Take a picture of you and your colleagues donning red, share it on your social page and encourage folks to visit https://www.goredforwomen.org/ for more information. And, it’s a great time to remind your friends, colleagues, customers and others to monitor their blood pressure, including stopping by one of the many blood pressure monitoring stations located at various WVU Extension offices throughout the state. (There also is some great information about heart health on this page.)
 
Go red!

Last chance to participate in the WVU Book Recycling Program

The Office of Sustainability is holding its first book recycling collection for 2020 next week (beginning Monday, Feb. 10). 

Employees and departments are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to get rid of any unwanted paper items from their offices and storage rooms. The program primarily is intended for hardback books; however, you also may include paperback books, journals, magazines and pamphlets. 

Don't forget to order your WVU Extension Service branded apparel!

Many of you inquired about the WVU Extension Service plaid dress shirts that you saw at Annual Conference and other events, as well as vests from the Women in Agriculture and National 4-H conferences. We’re happy to announce that you can now purchase those items with the WVU Extension Service logo!
 
The items may be purchased and paid for online. All orders will be sent to the vendor as a bulk order and then delivered to Knapp Hall to avoid shipping costs. We will distribute the items from Knapp Hall and other designated locations. If you are interested in ordering an item(s), please do so by close of business on February 11. Please note, individuals are responsible for purchase/payment of these items.
 
We are exploring other opportunities to order branded gear for the spring/summer months, so please look for that information in early spring.
 
If you have any questions, please contact Extension Communications.

Campus community invited to Black History Month events

WVU announces its Black History Month events Feb. 3- 27, including the annual Black Excellence Awards and Celebration of Diversity & Inclusion at WVU at the women’s basketball game, as well as “Black Minds Matter,” a seminar on black students’ mental health.

Also, be on the lookout for additional opportunities on WVU's other campuses. 

WVU hosts Jackson Katz for lecture on ending gender violence

On Wednesday, March 4, WVU Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will be hosting educator, author and filmmaker Jackson Katz as he discusses "Sex, Violence and Silence: Why Ending Gender Violence is on All of Us." The lecture will begin at 6 p.m. at the WVU Creative Arts Center and will be followed by a Q&A session. Jackson Katz is long recognized as one of America’s leading anti-sexist male activists working in gender violence prevention with men and boys.

This event is free and has been made possible in part by a grant from the Big 12 Violence and Discrimination Awareness and Prevention Fund.

Report injuries within 24 hours

With summer camps and Energy Express just around the corner, employees are reminded that any accident, injury or near miss must be reported within 24 hours to WVU Environmental Health and Safety. To report an injury, complete the form on the Environmental Health and Safety website and email it to WVUInjuryIncidentReport@mail.wvu.edu.  

If you have questions, call 304-293-HURT to reach WVU Medical Management or 304-293-3792 to reach WVU Environmental Health and Safety.

Read the current edition of Under the Dome

Under the Dome delivers a review of the issues being considered by state government and the West Virginia Legislature. It provides information on matters that affect WVU and higher education.

The current edition provides an update on a number of high-profile bills and resolutions introduced.

For more information visit the Under the Dome page on the Government Relations website.

WVU Shared Services Center is open for business

As a reminder, the WVU Shared Services Center officially is open for business.

The service center is located on the third floor of One Waterfront Place and provides faculty and staff a one-stop shop for accessing human resources, financial management and sponsored-project financial management services and support. 

Expect to see new login screen more frequently over the coming months

Whether you are faculty or staff, you can expect to more frequently see a screen that asks you to choose your affiliation before logging into a service or system. Most people will choose Employees/Students. However, if you are employed by WVU Medicine, or you are paid by both WVU and WVU Medicine, click the WVU Medicine button. 

This screen already appears when you log into WVU Libraries (EZ Proxy), the 25Live room reservation tool and the WVU+kc (Kuali) research administration tool. In the future, additional services will display this screen. This quick extra step in the login process facilitates access to resources between WVU and its affiliates.  

Direct questions to the ITS Service Desk at 304.293.4444. 

Healthy Grandfamilies Program coming to Preston County

Are you a grandparent suddenly raising a grandchild? Need help finding resources and services?

An eight-week Healthy Grandfamilies program will start March 3 at the Newburg Senior Center at 36 Morgantown Ave. The discussion group will meet from 5:45-8 p.m. The weekly Tuesday discussion groups will meet through April 21. Participants are welcome to come at 5:45 p.m. for dinner. Transportation and childcare are available, if needed.

“This is the third program event offered by the Preston County Grandfamilies Coalition,” according to Susie Huggins, After School Explorers program director. “There is a large uptick in the number of children being raised by grandfamilies here in Preston County. One study shows that 62.5 percent of school-age children are being raised by grandparents. We have to help our grandfamilies and communities raise our next generation.”

Elkins enters agreement with Monongahela National Forest

During Elkins City Council’s first regular meeting of 2020 the city entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Monongahela National Forest.

Resolution 1297 is an agreement between Elkins and the Monongahela National Forest to “create a shared outdoor recreation vision for each county and the greater regions surrounding the Mon Forest,” said Taira Landavere, marketing director for Elkins-Randolph County Tourism and a representative of the City of Elkins within this memorandum.

Good to grow: What to know before you grow

The spark for my writing often comes from a conversation with friends. Usually, it is an innocent question or statement that turns in my mind and falls onto the page as I process the thoughts. That’s what happened with a simple question, “What grows here?”

It’s complicated, and I have two words: sun and soil.

Just put your shovel in the ground and you will quickly have an idea of your soil type, but soil testing will give you more information. It’s not as complicated as it sounds. Take a few samples of soil from different spots in your garden, drop them in the mail; within a few weeks you will receive a report of the soil’s nutrients and what needs to be added.

Testing information is available on the West Virginia University Extension website. They will even help you interpret the results — how great is that?

Departures

• Peni Adams, Health Educator - Family Nutrition Program, Wyoming County (effective Feb. 7)
• Derek Anderson, Accountant, 4-H Youth Development (effective Feb. 14)

Retirements

• Thomas (Tom) McConnell, Program Leader - Small Farm Center, ANR (effective Feb. 28)
• Joan Baldwin, Nutrition Outreach Instructor - Family Nutrition Program, Kanawha County (effective June 30)

Changes

• Alexandria (Alex) Straight is now Alexandria Smith.
• Todd Ralston (Budget Analyst, Finance and Business) has received an interim upgrade to Senior Accountant.