This week our Friday Spotlight is the N.C. Cooperative Extension of Stokes County Summer Intern, Anna Gibbons. She grew up in Stokes County and graduated from the Middle College of Forsyth in Winston-Salem, NC. Now, she attends the University of North Carolina at Chapel-Hill as a Golden LEAF scholar in her Sophomore year. She is majoring in Environmental Science and Political Science and minoring in Marine Science. Her interests include hiking, swimming, music, and travel. 

She started with the office in early June. She knew she wanted to intern with an environment-based science organization in Stokes County for the summer and N.C. Cooperative Extension was the perfect fit. “I grew up attending 4-H camps in Stokes County and I have a passion for supporting local food businesses, but I had no idea how much I would learn about the county I have been living in my whole life. While I did not grow up on a sixty-acre farm my family had tried to grow a few things and raise cows and chickens at different points throughout my life. It was not until I started at the Extension office that I realized the huge impact of agriculture in Stokes County. I knew I had always lived in a “farm town” as many people like to call it, but Stokes County is so much more than just a farm town. Farming has been ingrained in the bloodline of Stokes County for generation after generation. I now have a better understanding and appreciation for our farmers and the need to protect their land and livelihood. That is a huge part of what being an Extension agent is about, supporting the community and giving resources to the agriculture producers in order to bolster their practice. I encourage everyone reading this to support your community by buying local and using the Extension office as the incredible resource that it is. We want to see the agriculture of Stokes County continue to thrive and for our community to be involved. I am so excited to see what the future holds for Stokes County and the N.C. Cooperative Extension.”