The Mississippi State University Extension Undergraduate Apprenticeship Program was implemented in 2017 to give undergraduate juniors and seniors the opportunity to work one-on-one with an Extension mentor and explore careers in agriculture, natural resources, family and consumer sciences, community resource development, or youth development, while participating in research and outreach activities that directly benefit Extension programs and community stakeholders. The program is rooted in the principles of mentoring adult learners in an organizational context. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model and the DEAL Model for Critical Reflection serve as the conceptual framework, whereby students engage in critical reflection to enhance their integrated research-and-outreach learning experience. An evaluation of the first two student cohorts (n=19) revealed a significant production of scholarship, an increase in discipline-specific knowledge, enhanced critical thinking and problem solving skills, a greater understanding and appreciation for Extension, and a desire to pursue related graduate studies.

Forming positive relationships is an important part of the onboarding process for new Extension professionals. Often, formal mentors are assigned to new employees, but they also develop relationships with other colleagues in the organization. Past studies have found quality relationships with mentors and coworkers can positively influence job outcomes such as employee turnover, organizational performance, and organizational commitment. This study examined the perceptions that early career Extension agents in Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi had of their formal mentors and best-liked coworkers using a causal-comparative design and online survey. Results showed early career Extension agents tended to have marginally positive views of their relationships with their formal mentors but perceived high-quality relationships with their coworkers. Neither type of relationship was significantly related to organizational commitment, but increased frequency of contact with the formal mentor was significantly related to more positive perceptions of the mentoring relationship. Extension organizations should provide structured guidelines for frequency of interactions between mentors and mentees to help improve those relationships.

It is common for professionals in technical and science-related careers to interact with colleagues and the general public frequently in their daily work. However, most do not receive any education or practice developing interpersonal skills. Thus, these professionals may struggle to create positive interactions, especially while in leadership roles or interacting with stakeholders or clientele. We worked with the Wildlife Services National Training Academy to develop and deliver a half-day training on leadership competencies including emotional intelligence, power and influence, and conflict management. This application brief describes the training, including learning activities implemented, and reports evaluative feedback from participants and the workshop developers and facilitator. Recommendations for implementing similar leadership development programming for technical audiences is included. Issue Statement Many professionals in wildlife and natural resources careers likely do not enter their vocation with the expectation of interacting with people regularly. Yet more often than not, these individuals are the soughtafter experts in local communities, "advocating stakeholders' positions on local natural resource issues and promoting responsible resource management among the general public" (Gordon, Carter, & Bland, 2013, para. 1). Human relationships with wildlife are shaped by social and psychological influences (Decker, Riley, & Siemer, 2012), including "cultural and emotional experiences, economics, governance, and stakeholder engagement" (Nyhus, 2016, p. 153).

Cooperative Extension Service (also known as Extension) agents may lack adequate content knowledge to meet the demands of the diverse programming in Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) they are expected to deliver. This article reports on the findings from an assessment of FCS Extension personnel in Mississippi. Two surveys were administered to assess the perceived importance of FCS competencies and the perceived ability to perform them. A rank‐sum score was computed, which was used to determine the relative need for training on various Human Development competencies. Findings show that competencies related to child development, parenting, and family stress and crisis warrant training.

Highlights There is a concern that agricultural producers could be misusing opioids to cope with stress and injuries. Focus groups were held in Mississippi to determine perceptions of opioid misuse in the agricultural community. Results found that alcohol misuse, not opioid misuse, is an issue for Mississippi agricultural producers. Focus group participants believe that other groups in their communities have issues with opioid misuse. Abstract. Opioid misuse has been identified as a concern among the farming community. The aim of this study is to identify how opioid misuse is perceived in agricultural communities across the state of Mississippi. A series of focus groups were conducted with University Agricultural and Natural Resource Extension agents and agricultural producers in Mississippi between November 2020 and February 2021. Focus group transcripts were analyzed through thematic analysis. Both university Extension agents and agriculture producers believe that opioid misuse is more of a concern in the greater rural community, amongst younger individuals, as opposed to being a concern for producers themselves. Extension agents stated that the unique personalities of agricultural producers might prevent them from being upfront about any of their opioid misuse. Agricultural producers stated that alcohol misuse is more of a concern among their peers than opioid misuse and that opioid misuse is present in farm labor. Generally, the focus groups revealed that participants did not think that opioid misuse was an issue for agricultural producers in Mississippi. However, participants identified other groups in their communities as having issues with opioids. The private nature of agricultural producers could be a reason why opioid misuse is not perceived to be widespread in that group. Alcohol misuse was observed as an issue for agricultural producers in the producer focus groups. Keywords: Agriculture, Farming, Focus groups, Opioids, Mississippi.