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EDITOR’S NOTE: Extension has thousands of instances in which it has made a difference in a person’s life. For example:

One of the enrollees in the “Put Your Skills to Work” class was Georgina, a single mom and a Hispanic. She and her six-month-old and four-year-old children were living with two other families—three families in one household with several kids.

Georgina had more skills than many people in the class. In her native Mexico she had about two years of post-high school technical training in a paint testing lab, and she worked for a business that made diamond drills for petroleum drilling.

After moving to Idaho she got a job at a metal fabrication business. She walked to work because her car didn’t run. She also walked about 11 blocks to the classes, carrying her infant and holding the hand of her four-year-old. “She never missed a class,” said Linda Gossett, a University of Idaho extension educator and one of the instructors.

After working 15 months at the metal fabrication business and receiving good performance evaluations, she had not received a raise but was due one. She kept hearing that the boss forgot to give it to her.

Gossett counseled Georgina during the class breaks that she needed to talk to her boss about the raise and to tell him that she could use the extra money to repair her car so that she would not have to continue to walk to work.

“In the Mexican culture, women do not look men in the eye, and they don’t confront their bosses,” Gossett has learned from her years as an EFNEP (Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program) coordinator who assists Hispanics.

On the night of the class graduation, Gossett talked to Georgina, who exclaimed, “I got my raise!”

“What did you do?” Gossett asked.
“I talked to my boss,” a beaming Georgina said proudly.

Although by this time it was four months after the promise of a raise, it was a milestone for Georgina—and for the UI extension educator.

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