PORT TOWNSEND—After its beginning as a channel for the agricultural arts, Washington State University Extension has become an essential educational component for rural areas such as Jefferson County.
“It’s remarkable how we have people with master’s- and Ph.D.-level programs graduating in Jefferson County,” said WSU Extension Interim Director Pamela Roberts in an address to the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce on Monday.
“When kids they say they can’t afford to go to college because I can’t move away from home or I have to work here, please tell them to come and talk to us and we can get them onto an online program.”
Roberts said online programs increase flexibility for those who are seeking degrees and do not live in proximity to a physical campus, and WSU is in the process of making the online experience more comfortable.
This includes creating a comfortable distance learning environment at WSU’s Port Hadlock learning center, “where people can come in, sit down and use a computer and not be isolated like they would be at home, and where people can support each other.”
Roberts said the college has come up with a name for the new learning center: “Surf and Turf.”
“It is surf because we are online and turf because we are working with farms.” she said.
“But you can help us out with that, to find another name.”
Roberts said that support of community agriculture is an essential part of WSU’s function, both to create food production opportunities and steering the public toward using the new channels.
“We need to make new decisions about how we shop,” she said.
“This is a challenge because we have shopping habits that are hard to break, but we need to do what we can to support local farmers.
Roberts said this requires people to establish new routines, such as taking a route home that passes by a farm stand instead of a supermarket.
While WSU has significant local impact, its efforts have developed an international reach, according to Roberts.
Roberts said that youths from Rwanda, Taiwan and Ecuador have been brought to Jefferson County to learn agricultural techniques, and there are plans to send WSU personnel to other countries for educational purposes.
“In January 2012, I am going to fly to Ghana and this will start an agricultural virtual community,” she said.
“All of the intellectual capital created in Jefferson County will get leveraged on an international basis.”
When this happens, a planned computer broadband in Jefferson County will become increasingly important, Roberts said.
Roberts was named the Extension’s interim director when Katherine Baril retired in January, and said Monday that she has applied for the job on a permanent basis.
Applications are now being collected by WSU and the selection process will begin later this month, according to WSU Equal Employment Opportunity Coordinator Lisa Clyde.
There is no timetable, but Clyde hopes the new director will be in place by the fall.
If she is not selected as director, Roberts is uncertain whether she will go back to her old job as 4-H director, she said.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
