FCS agent gets quick workload

FAMILY AND CONSUMER science county agent Sarah Mote hit the ground running when she started work just before the Freestone County Fair. New Freestone county extension family and consumer sciences agent Sara Mote knows what it means to hit the ground running.

Miss Mote began work June 8, just a week before the 85th annual Freestone County Fair and only days after graduating from Denton's Texas Women's University.

The new agent applied for the position in April and on April 20 her application was approved by county commissioners.

After meeting with commissioners, she traveled back to Denton to complete her course work and in May she received her bachelors degree from TWU with a major in nutrition-food science in business and a minor in business administration.

A few days after graduation, Miss Mote attended a three-week training course where she was mentored by Navarro County extension family and consumer sciences agent Paula Butler.

During this time, she was given the opportunity to watch Mrs. Butler prepare programs for the community and observe the daily activity of a working agent.

"I think normally the training is six-weeks long but with the county fair approaching my training was a bit more intensive," comments Miss Mote.

But she isn't complaining. In a time of rising unemployment nationwide, Miss Mote feels fortunate to have secured a job before even graduating.

"We had a wonderful career development department at my school and I had a really great counselor," she says.

Miss Mote, a native of Lufkin, looks forward to her role as an FCS agent who has firsthand knowledge of the support the agency provides to a community.

As a child she spent a lot of time at her grandfather's ranch between Crockett and Grapeland.

"We would have a tree growing on the ranch and we would go the extension office to find out what type of tree it was. We were constantly taking soil samples to the agents," says Miss Mote.

After only a few weeks on the job, she has already completed her first nutritional program, Cooking Well With Diabetes, and she looks forward to implementing new programs in the coming year.

Her academic background and employment experience make her a natural fit for nutritional education.

Miss Mote worked as a catering supervisor for Aramark where she created menus for guest populations up to five hundred and has extensive education in nutrition through life cycles, food service systems, ecology of foods and nutrition and food protective management.

But she plans to extend her focus beyond the realm of nutrition, once she gets a chance to breath which should be sometime this week.

Miss Mote says the weekend of the Fourth of July will be her first uncommitted weekend where she will be free to relax at home and get a chance to familiarize herself with her new home.