Each year, Rutgers Cooperative Extension, a unit of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES), honors faculty and staff for their outstanding work and outreach through their programs and support. The winners for 2014 received their awards at the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Annual Conference at the Cook Campus Center in New Brunswick on October 20.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Award is to provide recognition to those members of the Cooperative Extension faculty and staff who make notable contributions to the Equal Employment Opportunity Program. The recipient for this award is Miss Harmon, urban 4-H program associate, 4-H Youth Development Department, RCE of Mercer County.
Harmon annually recruits 4-5 teenagers who are underrepresented and indigenous to Trenton and the surrounding areas as cross-age volunteers and summer interns to assist with after-school programming and summer camps on a daily basis. Each volunteer is trained in the areas of digital filmmaking, robotics, leadership in dance programming, cooking, financial literacy and global awareness and science program implementation. Their involvement has provided them valuable work experience and has aided the success of the programs for the younger youth. Several of the youth use this experience to help them gain employment in their community and surrounding areas and to obtain college admission.
