The silhouettes of two cyclists are seen in front of a blue and yellow sunrise that reflects on a lake below.

Winston 100 Wellness on Wheels cyclists ride through the Noxubee Wildlife Refuge as the sun rises over a cool fall 2018 morning.

A close up shot of the gears and bottom of a fluorescent green bike parked in a parking lot.

Start small, but start today. That’s what Scott Stokes was thinking last year when he brought out his bicycle after a 12-year hiatus and started riding again. A new Mississippi State University Extension Service program encouraged him to get back on track. (Photo by Kevin Hudson)

A young boy wearing a Mississippi State t-shirt holds a butterfly-like insect out toward the camera.

Bug Camp is not a place for kids who are afraid of bugs, warns Ryals Strider.

See What’s New in Extension: Extension Supports University's Community Garden, Extension Appoints New 4-H Staff, Extension Landscape Symposium Honors Professor Emeritus, and Extension's Southern Gardener Opens Little Free Garden

A black metal bench overlooking the cemetery sits under the shade of a large, green tree.

Foreman Matthew Ellis is responsible for keeping the grounds of the Biloxi National Cemetery in shape. But it’s more than just a job to him.

An elderly woman wearing an orange striped shirt stands in front of a large, multicolored, needlepoint county map of Mississippi.

When she came to her first Mississippi Homemaker Volunteers meeting in 1968, Rae Clarke accompanied her aunt, Versie Manning, who insisted Clarke come to the Thanksgiving party.

Sweet potatoes in brown dirt lay in a sweet potato field with a harvest machine in the background.

After growing up on a family sweet potato farm, Jamie Earp left thinking farming just wasn’t for him. (Photo by Kevin Hudson)

A man wearing a light blue collared shirt and a grey zip-up jacket stands next to a short-haired woman wearing a black sweater.

David Fulgham did not hesitate to show his support for the Mississippi State University Extension Service Plant Pathology Diagnostic Lab when his chance came.

The front of an old Ford truck with the logo centered in an orange-colored rusty area of the light blue truck.

When retired teacher Billy Tigrett retired for the second time from Walmart, he gave some thought to living off his retirement, social security, and 401K.

He didn’t think about it long.

A teen girl wearing a blue shirt stands next to the corner of a brick wall and in front of green bushes. She holds a blue ribbon in her right hand and a red ribbon in her left.

Ashantis Wigley is forging her future college and career path at Humphreys County High School by sharpening her discipline, drive, and patience through the Mississippi State University 4-H Youth Development program.

On the left, a woman with short hair and a light pink, collared shirt leans on the table, holding a pen above an area of a map. On the right another woman wearing a blue floral dress leans on the table and looks at it.

Kay Little has always loved maps. As a child, she would spend hours studying an atlas with her father, who drove a truck.

So it was no surprise to her parents when, in the late 1980s, she announced she was going to work toward a college degree in drafting technology to learn how to run software capable of making maps.

A blonde woman in a white shirt and ponytail stands in front of a wooden wall and holds a brown, black, and white baby goat.

After working all day, Deidra Rollins knew the last thing she wanted to do was spend every evening and weekend at the ball field. But she wanted something she and her daughter, Tory, could do together. So she stopped by the local Mississippi State University Extension Service office.

A white-haired male wearing a denim shirt and jeans stands beside a tree and smiles.

During his tenure as an engineer at Boeing, Ottis Bullock helped build machines that went into the air and to the moon, but he always had an interest in the trees that grew from the ground where he came of age.

A couple stands among crop rows. The woman, left, has short brown hair, a pink shirt, and khaki pants, and a taller man wears a white and tan baseball cap, a checkerboard-striped shirt, and blue jeans.

Lonnie Fortner was the first row-crop producer in southwest Mississippi to use many of the same precision ag technologies that are now commonplace.

The sun shines over the horizon stretching above a corn field.

Approximately 500,000 acres of corn were harvested statewide in 2018, including from these Northeast Mississippi rows in Noxubee County. 

A young woman with brown hair and a pink shirt stands smiling while holding a black and white speckled chicken next to her face.

When Emma Grace McGrew became Mississippi’s 2017 Miss Hospitality, a year of exciting experiences awaited the former Prentiss County 4-H’er and self-proclaimed country girl.

A man wearing a green and white plaid shirt, blue jeans, and a brown baseball cap stands in front of a bright red machine parked inside a metal building.

Greg Chambers is one Mississippi producer who’s focused on innovating. Whether he’s growing soybeans and wheat on his Prentiss County property or raising cattle and goats on other acres, Chambers is always looking for a better, more efficient way of doing things.

A woman wearing a white visor, maroon shirt, jeans, and boots marks a clipboard as five cows and three calves rest under a tree.

See what's new in Extension: Gather for First Extension Beef-Production Workshop, the Food Factor Goes Digital, Extension Professionals Share Expertise, and Extension Offers New HappyHealthy Program. 

: On the left, a younger woman wearing a patterned pink shirt holds one side of a crocheted grey shirt shirt. In the middle, and older woman smiles. On the right, another older woman with grey hair and a crocheted piece of clothing smiles and holds the shirt.

When Julia Bailey returned to her native DeKalb in 1992, she wanted to get involved in her community.

When Calhoun County supervisors helped buy a grain bin rescue tube for their fire departments, they hoped no one would ever have to use it

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Extension Matters Issues

About Extension Matters Magazine

Extension Matters magazine is the premier publication of the Mississippi State University Extension Service, telling our clients’ own stories of success through Extension education.

“We are excited to have our clients tell their stories, and we are thankful for the opportunity to interact with Mississippians through our local offices in all 82 counties across the state,” says Dr. Gary B. Jackson, director of Extension.

Extension Matters profiles people just like you, men and women who want to expand their knowledge base and learn about the latest innovations. Families, farmers, business owners, and government leaders are benefitting from the educational opportunities Extension agents and specialists are bringing to people and communities just like yours. Extension Matters shares our clients’ successes to show how you, too, can succeed through Extension.