Provided

From left, U.S. Army Specialists Matthew Gonzalez and Michelle Chaffee stand with Amanda Root and Gale McArdell of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County. Gonzalez and Chaffee served as interns at the extension.

Matthew Gonzalez is no ordinary intern. Prior to his arrival in the IT department at Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) of Jefferson Country, New York, where he troubleshoots and fixes hardware and software issues, the 29-year-old U.S. Army specialist spent his workdays calibrating and repairing the computer interfaces on military missile systems at nearby Fort Drum.

Pondering a potential post-Army career shift, Gonzalez is focusing his internship on learning how to adapt and contribute to a non-military workplace.

“What I’m learning here at CCE is a perfect complement to the work ethic and discipline ingrained in me by six-plus years in the military,” says Gonzalez.

Echoing those thoughts is Michelle Chaffee, another Fort Drum-based CCE Jefferson intern. Chaffee, a 40-year-old mother of two, recently left the Army after serving in its military police corps for four and a half years, including three months in Afghanistan. At CCE, she assists the organization’s marketing and communication efforts.

Both interns, who were placed in November 2015 while still on active duty, came to CCE Jefferson by way of Operation Warfighter, a Department of Defense program that matches qualified wounded, ill and injured service members with nonfunded federal internships.

“Through our long-standing relationships with Fort Drum, we became aware of Operation Warfighter and reached out to its counselors to express interest and explain all of the things we do here at Cooperative Extension,” says Amanda Root, who coordinates CCE Jefferson’s communication and marketing efforts. “We told them we’d be willing to take interns with interest to help in areas such as HR, IT and marketing as well as nutrition, parenting and agriculture. Then we worked together to locate the right candidates and developed an educational plan that included specific goals that the internship experience should accomplish.”

After navigating the application and placement process, Chaffee and Gonzalez signed on and traded in their camouflage fatigues for business casual. While no longer required to report for duty with their military units, they did retain their full military salaries.

“That meant there was no financial investment required on our part,” says Root. “It truly was win-win-win.”

Much more than just free labor, the new interns made a positive and immediate impact. Gonzalez’s computer expertise made him an instant asset for troubleshooting and correcting operating system and hardware issues. Chaffee stepped up into a substantial role with the association’s newly launched marketing initiatives. Prior to enlisting in the Army, Chaffee sold advertising for radio stations and newspapers in Connecticut, making her new duties a comfortable and effective fit.

“We had just put a new communications and marketing plan in place, and Michelle really helped get it off the ground by visiting radio and TV stations to see what kind of free opportunities they have available for nonprofits,” says Root, who supervises Chaffee. “She’s also taken a look at a lot of our marketing materials and made suggestions on how they could be improved or changed – especially in terms of reaching soldiers and families at Fort Drum. That insight has been invaluable.”

For Chaffee and Gonzalez, the internships have helped them readjust to the civilian workplace and culture and have prepared them for employment opportunities outside the military.

“Being with CCE has been refreshing and given me a renewed sense of purpose,” says Chaffee. “Because of injuries to my neck and back, I couldn’t do what was required of me at my company as an MP and [I] spent most of my time standing around or doing mundane office work. With CCE, I’ve been assisting with important work, which provides a sense of fulfillment.”

Chaffee’s military commitment was complete at the end of March. She continues to volunteer with CCE and is slated to earn an associate’s degree in criminal justice from Jefferson Community College by late spring. In the fall, she will begin classes at the University of Texas at Arlington, where she will study criminology to become a polygraph examiner.

Gonzalez, on the other hand, is not quite through with the military. Discharged in mid-March, he remains in Watertown, New York, and has enlisted with the Army National Guard. Scheduled to attend Officer Candidate School, Gonzalez is also taking online classes toward a master’s degree from Thomas Edison State University. His dream job is to become a systems administrator.

In the meantime, Gonzalez will continue his real-world education by volunteering his time with CCE. “I plan on staying here for a while,” he says. “I enjoy what I’m doing, and the people here make it fun to come to work.”

R.J. Anderson is a communications specialist/staff writer for Cornell Cooperative Extension.