I serve as the Family & Consumer Science Extension Specialist for Professional Development.   I work with all new hires in FCS Extension and work with any FCS agent that needs mentoring or help regardless of length of employment.   I first work with new hires as they attend the new agent training on campus.  I organize the entire 3^rd day of training to help them understand all the resources available to agents to be successful in their counties.  This day I strive to make field staff feel a connection to campus and the team we have to help support agents.  We have hired 6 new agents in the last year and those were added in my rotation cycle to do an office visit one to two times in the first year with follow up visits as needed.   I did offer an additional training day to help with topics that time did not allow on the first training. I continue to be a resource for the District Directors to use when they see an agent who just needs some support on the job.  I have helped with CORE training in teaching methods and created an event planner sheet to help any agent be prepared every year with annual events.  

 One agent who is starting in her third year said “I have really appreciated knowing I could ask you anything and you help build my confidence that I can do this job.  It does take over a year to start understanding the complete role.”