My name is Rebeckah Alcantara, and I am the 2024 Summer Intern for the Virginia Cooperative Extension Wise County Office. I grew up here in Wise, Virginia and graduated from Eastside High School. I am currently pursuing my B.S in biology and minor in psychology at The University of Virginia’s College at Wise. Growing up in the Appalachian region, I have a natural love of the outdoors. I consider myself very lucky to live in the mountains. It allows me to frequently visit local trails and appreciate the vast biodiversity of our area. Wanting to help preserve the natural beauty of the region, I am looking to pursue a future career in environmental conservation.
Although I have already learned so much during my first couple weeks of interning, I have much more to learn. I am fairly new to the gardening world, but my studies in biology have been useful for helping me understand the horticultural side of the field. So far, I’ve helped my supervising agent Phil Meeks with a couple garden maintenance meetings. I helped present on pest management and got to meet a lot of the folks in the Grow Wise Program. Going forward in this internship, I am very excited to learn more and visit garden sites throughout the county. I look forward to working with the people involved with Grow Appalachia and am grateful for the opportunity to help out my community.

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