The Generous Technology Extraordinaire Spotlight on Elena Rodriquez

The GenerouS TeChnoloGy exTraordInaIre

by: Gabrielle Sanderson

elena rodrIGuez of The CounTy of arlInGTon and The CITy of alexandrIa haS helped her CommunITy To InTeGraTe TeChnoloGy InTo TheIr exTenSIon maSTer Gardener proGram. She IS beInG reCoGnIzed for her dedICaTIon and ambITIon To ServInG and eduCaTInG her CommunITy.

Technology is an integral part of the modernday world. It can be seen in the palms of people on the street, on the walls of homes, and in classrooms across the country. Its use is rapidly increasing and is now a significant part of the Arlington/Alexandria Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Program. The quick advances in technology can be hard to grasp, yet there is one tech savvy Extension Master Gardener (EMG), Elena Rodriguez, that stepped up as a leader and educator in her county. Elena Rodriguez was certified as a Master Gardener back in 2014, and became immediately involved in the program after retiring from her job as a librarian. “Elena has been very involved with the training of Extension Master Gardeners, in accessing information online,” states Kirsten Conrad, extension agent from the County of Arlington. “Elena’s knowledge was positioned in a way to help the volunteers with technological challenges.” One of these challenges that Elena has helped with is converting all of the county’s documents, photos,

and listserv from a Yahoo Groups platform to Google Apps. The documents that Elena moved to the Google Drive contained information that can be used to educate the public about the Master Gardener Program and the Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia (MGNV) records. The list-serve was also converted, it contained approximately 230 members, and required the MGNV members to get all new @mgnv.org accounts. “Not all of our members are tech savvy,” says Peter Hickman, an Extension Master Gardener. “To get the members on-board, Elena staffed many “clinics” to help members through the process of establishing these new accounts and to explain how to use the new list-serve.” Elena even gave an informational presentation at a MGNV Membership meeting to show all of the changes, a way to gain access to files, and how to use the list-serve. This conversion from Yahoo to Google did not happen overnight. “Elena dedicated hours, weeks, months to successfully complete the transfer for both our MGNV archives and the MGNV list-serve,” explains Judy Funderburk. It is no secret that Elena has been very involved with training the Extension Master Gardeners on accessing the information online. Despite the fact that it is so time consuming she even offered to meet Extension Master Gardeners at their homes to help them set up their Google list-serve account. She goes above and beyond to make sure everyone can be successful and stay connected. “Elena is very tech savvy but also extraordinarily patient with members who aren’t. She was very generous with her time during this period of transition,” exclaims Hickman. Many people comment on Elena’s “good humor” and her patience that she exhibited with the Extension Master Gardeners through the transition. Elena is not only good with technology and patient, but she also ended up saving the Extension Master Gardener Association thousands of dollars by doing the work in house. Conrad states, “The fact that she saved the Association the money is almost secondary to the hundreds and hundreds of hours she spent of her own time doing the work and serving others. We’re extremely grateful to have that type of passion and advocacy for the work of extension.” Elena’s generosity and commitment to Cooperative Extension has helped aid in the transition to a more technology filled program. She created a friendly environment that allowed the Extension Master Gardeners to freely ask questions about the change and became an avid leader in her community. Technology of the modern day is now used and understood by more people in the Arlington/Alexandria Master Gardener Program thanks to Elena Rodriguez.

Photo of Elena Rodriguez, The Arlington/Alexandria Extension Master Gardener

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