Welcome to Penn State!

Welcome to Penn State Cooperative Extension and welcome to the College of Agricultural Sciences. As an extension agent and university employee you will have an opportunity to serve the Commonwealth in a direct and exciting way, by providing non formal education to the people in your county where they live and work and being on the front line of that unique exchange with the public we serve. In the Land Grant university system, cooperative extension has a long history of being at the forefront of reaching out into communities to educate, bring solutions to problems and identify ways of bringing educational resources available through the university system to our clientele.

Extension work can be challenging, rewarding, sometimes frustrating and often complex. You are part of a total system which includes county, state and federal partners with direction coming from a preeminent Land Grant university, Penn State and its College of Agricultural Sciences. As an agent of the University, you will be carrying out one of the key components of the land grant system, extension and outreach, and it is our intention to provide you with a good start, through a systematic New Staff Orientation program. This web site is a good place to start to familiarize yourself with your new employer, the organization, how we are funded, resources available to you as an employee, certain conditions of employment, and how extension agents fit into the mix of university faculty and staff. Please feel free to access any of the people or resources identified on this site; we welcome you and we are glad you chose Penn State Cooperative Extension as your employer!