The DeKalb County Extension Office has a new agent.
In an interview with WJLE on Tuesday, January 27, Leigh Fuson said she has joined the staff as a 4-H Extension Agent and will be working with Director and County Extension Agent Michael Barry and Dr. April Martin, Extension Family Consumer Science Agent.
Fuson, who is originally from White County, married Zach Fuson of Smithville four years ago and the couple resides here. She is a graduate of Tennessee Tech with a degree in agriculture education and comes to this new position after having worked with the 4-H program in Putnam County for three years.
According to Fuson, her new 4-H assignment will allow both Barry and Martin to devote more time to other programs they are already involved in. “I am a 4-H Extension agent. That’s the only thing I’ll be working with. Michael and April will still be doing a little of the 4-H work but this way they can focus on the adult programming with agriculture and the family consumer sciences,” she said.
Fuson’s position is primarily being funded through Tennessee State University with a portion being financially supported by the county. “It is TSU funded. When you hear about the extension office, it is usually UT Extension. UT partners with TSU. They are both land grant universities in our state and they both have extension programs. We got funding here for an extra TSU funded position,” said Fuson.
Excited about starting her new job, Fuson said she hopes to expand programs and services for 4-H students. ” I hope to get some more programming going in the county. Since they do the adult work too, Michael and April haven’t had as much time to do some of the judging teams and the competitive events so I hope to be able to start a horse judging team, a livestock judging, poultry, etc. I really like doing my animal projects,” she said.
“When you think about 4-H you think about the traditional things with livestock, farming, bread baking and all that but there is really a lot more to it. There’s a lot of science programming, leadership, and citizenship. They have really focused on the STEM activities and I’ll be doing some of that in the schools to help match up the standards with the schools. I’m just hoping to revamp some of the programming here in the county and get some more things going,” Fuson continued.
Fuson encourages anyone to contact the Extension Office to offer an idea or suggestion. ” You may call the office at 615-597-4945. My email address is lfuson2@utk.edu. I have also started a facebook page and we have a UT Extension website. You can google us there too. If there is anything specific programming wise that a student is interested in that we don’t have here, talk to me and we’ll see if we can get it going. The first thing coming up will be horse judging. I’m going to try to get a team together for that. It’s time for the Chick Chain if anyone is interested in getting chickens. Everything in 4-H is fourth through twelfth grade and I look forward to going out into the schools. I’m excited to meet everybody,” said Fuson.
Archived News & Obituaries