After some staffing shortages for the past nine months, the University of Maryland Extension, Carroll County Office is getting an influx of new staff members.
Two 4-H faculty extension assistant positions had been open since last summer after the university decided not to renew the contracts of the two previous employees. Mike Bell, senior extension agent at the Carroll office, said the university went through its standard hiring practice to fill those positions, and the new employees started in January and February.
Jim Serfass started Jan. 30 as a faculty extension assistant in the 4-H environmental science program. Most recently, Serfass was a substitute teacher with Carroll County Public Schools and an adventure guide with Terrapin Adventures in Savage. Before moving to Carroll County, he worked at outdoor science schools in New York, the mountains of Southern California and the San Francisco Bay area.
"This is my first experience with 4-H," Serfass said in an email. "I majored in environmental science at Juniata College and graduated in 2006. I've been working as an educator in the environmental science field since then."
Serfass said he would like to support 4-H's outdoor and environmental programs that are already thriving, like 4-H summer camp and the Hot Shots shooting sports club, while expanding opportunities for youth by establishing an outdoor recreation club and creating new school programs.
Less than two months in, Serfass said he's enjoyed his transition to Carroll and the 4-H.
"I really enjoy living in Carroll County," Serfass said. "It has a lot of history, a rural feel with easy access to cities, and, most importantly, many great people that have made me feel at home since I got here."
Becky Ridgeway, of Libertytown, started in February as a 4-H faculty extension assistant focusing in human sciences. Ridgeway said she was a 4-H member in Frederick County as a youth, raising cattle and sheep and participating in a wide range of activities, from public speaking to cooking to demonstrations.
Ridgeway earned her bachelor's of science and master's degree in agriculture education and extension from West Virginia University, and has spent some time since working as a student teacher, substitute teaching and working with the West Virginia extension on a children's literacy summer program.
"I'm very lucky to have come to Carroll County," Ridgeway said. "I felt that 4-H can give me the opportunity to work with a wider range of youth and not just a certain age group, and I kind of like the freedom that 4-H gives you to work in so many different areas of the program."
Since she started, Ridgeway has been working with the 4-H public speaking day which will be held Saturday, youth demonstrations, the fashion review and trying to get the 4-H nutrition and health programs back into the schools.
"Right now I'm working into getting into some of the libraries in the county to do some summer programs with elementary aged children," she said.
She's still learning how the program works, she said, predicting that it's going to take a good year to go through an entire 4-H program and learn all the different 4-H activities and to get a chance to meet a lot of the 4-H members and their families.
"The faculty in the office has just made me feel like part of their family and have been very helpful," Ridgeway said.
Another new face that will be starting April 3 is Jeff Myers, who will serve as the area extension director for the UME Northern Cluster, which includes Carroll, Baltimore and Harford counties, Bell said.
Myers is currently the county extension director for Penn State Extension in York County also serving as a dairy science educator, where he has worked for 10 years.
Myers said he has worked in the UME 4-H program in the past, and was excited about this opportunity to return to his home county and bring his management knowledge he has gained at his current position.
Rather than serving as director of one county, Myers will be serving as the director for three counties as the extension continues to transition into a regional approach for its extension faculty and offices.
Carroll was previously part of a cluster with Frederick and Howard counties, Bell said, and the county extension coordinator who oversaw all three counties resigned in October. Frederick and Howard counties are now being joined with Montgomery County as Carroll shifts to join the two counties to the east.
The cluster model will be a little different than the system used by Penn State Extension, Myers said, but it's not unique.
"If you look across the country, there are many programs that have moved to more of ... a regionalization and a similar sharing of expertise to maximize the resources and maximize the impact that you're having in that local community," Myers said. "We're really trying to take that research-based information and making a difference in the lives of local people."
Myers will be based out of the Carroll office but will also have offices at the Baltimore and Harford extension offices.
And a fourth new employee at the Carroll office will be Virginia Brown, whose start date has not yet been set, Bell said. Brown will be joining UME as the family and consumer sciences healthy living educator for the northern cluster - filling a position in the Carroll office that has remained open for a few years after the previous agent retired.
Brown is achieving her doctorate this spring from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and is expected to join the UME in mid- to late April, Bell said.
