Charlie: Hi there, Charlie here. Communications Manager for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rockland County and this is my little pet project Good Work New York - a podcast where we're talking about all the good work that happens here in Rockland County and the Hudson Valley and all over New York State. Today I have with me miss Nicole. Say hello!

Nicole: Hi, I'm Nicole and I've been working with Charlie this summer as his Communications Assistant.

Charlie: That's right, and last summer you were here as part of the Rockland Conservation Service Corps. And you learned so much and liked it so much you came back for another summer, is that right?

Nicole: Yes, that's right.

Charlie: Great, and you've been such a wonderful assistant the summer and I'm sad to see you go. Today's your last day and I think I'm gonna do a little something special and let you interview me for a change. What do you think?

Nicole: I'd love to!

Charlie: That's the right answer, Nicole. So take it away.

Nicole: So why are you having me do this interview?

Charlie: Because you are my Communications Assistant the summer and I've been trying to give you tasks that will build your resume and prepare you for the workforce when you graduate, and one of the things that I think is very important for anyone in a communications field to be able to do is to have a conversation and have an interview and exchange information and have that face-to-face interaction. So I wanted to give you that opportunity today.

Nicole: Great, so can you tell us why you started doing Good Work New York?

Charlie: I started this project because I've seen so much work in extension - in Rockland and throughout the state and at the University and in our partner organizations - that just goes completely unnoticed. So I wanted to find a way to highlight the good work that happens and draw attention to it in some way that would be interesting and engaging and preferably on video because that's really popular on social media.

Nicole: Great, so why would you say it's important for CCE to be involved in social media?

Charlie: It's important for all nonprofit community-based organizations to be on social media but specifically for CCE, it's vital because we serve the people in the community and in order to serve them we have to be able to communicate with them and we have to be where they are. And where the people are today is a lot on social media so it's very important for us to be where they are so that we can talk to them and share the work and resources and programs that we provide.

Nicole: Great so where do you see this project going?

Charlie: I'd really love to see this project get enough viewership on a weekly basis that there could be people out on Facebook contributing questions and having them answered live by our experts. I am talking to experts in Cornell University and other nonprofits and throughout the extension system and I'd really love for people's questions to be answered live on there.

Nicole: Okay so as you mentioned before I've been here already for two summers, so I was able to see all the important work being done at CCE. So why would you say your work is important?

Charlie: So my role specifically in CCE is really important because not only do I accomplish our mission of extending Cornell's resources into the local community by sharing the information and research based solutions but I also help people become aware of the programs and the services that we provide so that they can take use make use of them and improve their daily lives and have a better quality of life overall. And if they don't know about the programs that we have, they can't make use of it. So my job is two-fold - not only to communicate those solutions but also to communicate that we have these solutions that you can implement.

Nicole: That's great so can you tell us some of the feature segments for a Good Work New York?

Charlie: Definitely! I'm talking to some professors in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences -CALS- up at Ithaca in Cornell University and they have some really great research that they're doing and a lot of Technology and all different programs that they are putting together because they're looking at the impacts of climate change on agriculture and farming. So they're putting together mitigation responses to help address the pressures that are going to be facing our farmers because of the changes of due to climate change. I mean so it's everything from increasing crop yield and dealing with different pests to all different things that are going to help maintain our food supply chain so that we can get we keep providing people with enough food and the right kind of food as the world starts changing and warming due to climate change. Then from the College of Human Ecology, there's a lot of great research not just on nutrition and other things but just basically human interactions and family and all different sorts of things that are really important that I'd love to share with the community.

Nicole: That's awesome! Thank You, Charlie.

Charlie: Thank you, Nicole! I would like to thank Nicole for being my interviewer today and being such an awesome assistant this summer. That's our episode of Good Work New York we'll be back next week with another Good Work New York episode. And 'that's some good work new york!' Bye!