Major: Applied Economics

Hometown: Abuja, Nigeria

Career Goals:  I hope to pursue a traditional academic teaching and research job, policy-focused work, or applied community engagement like Extension offers.

Hobby or Fun Fact: I enjoy traveling and going on adventures, reading, working out, and trying out new restaurants with friends.

Thoughts from Uchenna

Through this internship, I hope to gain genuine understanding of whether Extension work aligns with my career goals beyond graduate school. As a doctoral student in applied economics, I am at a decision point where I need to explore whether I want to pursue traditional academic research, policy-focused work, or applied community engagement like Extension offers. I am drawn to Alabama Extension specifically because of its philosophy that research should serve communities directly, not just produce academic papers. My current work on the OnMed telemedicine project has shown me how critical it is to meet communities where they are, build trust before implementing programs, and respect that local knowledge matters as much as research expertise. Extension has been doing this for more than a century across Alabama’s diverse communities, and I want to learn from professionals who have mastered translating research into practical education that people actually value and use.

Professionally, I hope to contribute meaningfully to Lee County and Alabama at large through 4-H youth programming or supporting Extension agents with program coordination and evaluation. Personally, I want to understand the day-to-day realities of Extension work: the satisfactions of seeing community impact, the challenges of limited resources and competing priorities, and whether this kind of applied, relationship-centered work energizes me the way that research does. This summer, I want to develop specific skills that will serve me regardless of my eventual career path:

First, I want to strengthen my ability to communicate research-based information in accessible, nontechnical language for diverse audiences—a skill that is essential, whether I am teaching, writing policy briefs, or conducting community outreach. My training has made me comfortable with complex economic analysis, but translating that into practical guidance for farmers, families, or youth requires different communication skills that I need to practice. Second, I want to build program coordination and event planning capabilities in real-world settings with actual community stakeholders, not just hypothetical scenarios.

Third, I hope to develop cultural competence specific to rural Alabama communities. My international background has taught me to approach new settings with humility and curiosity, but I recognize that effective Extension work requires deep understanding of local context, relationships, and how communities actually function. Finally, I want to learn how to work within resource constraints creatively, Extension agents accomplish remarkable things with limited budgets, and understanding how they prioritize, partner, and leverage existing community assets would be invaluable for any career involving community-based work.

By the end of summer, I hope to have clarity about whether Extension-type work should be part of my career trajectory and, regardless of that answer, to have developed practical skills that make me more effective at connecting research to real-world impact