Jason Lawson Jr., born and raised in the Thorn Hill community of Hancock County, is excited to join the staff at UT Extension Union County for the 2021 summer internship.
He graduated Hancock High School in 2017 then went on to Walters State Community College, graduating with an Associate of Applied Science in Agriculture in December 2019.
During his last year at WSCC, he served a year term with AmeriCorps where he worked at the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Grainger/Hamblen County.
He started the University of Tennessee Knoxville in the spring of 2020, and is currently a senior there majoring in Agriculture Leadership with plans to graduate this fall. After graduation, Jason plans on starting grad school and mastering in the ALEC department with hopes of one day becoming an Extension Director.
In the future Jason and his brother hope to have a successful beef and produce farm. He comes from a hard-working family and has always grown up around farming. His family raised tobacco from the time he was a baby all the way to his start in college.
He is the first person in the family to attend college and will be the first one to graduate from a university. He has always enjoyed the outdoors and farming lifestyle so decided when he was in high school, he wanted to do something in the agriculture field.
He wanted to become an agriculture teacher at first, but after meeting different Extension agents, learning and seeing what they do made him realize that he would enjoy working in Extension as a career. Also, he has made some really good friends while choosing the Extension path. One of them is Justin Crowe, the state 4-H director. He has been really helpful and helped him realize Extension would be a good fit for him.
Jason is also the Live and Learn Farm Intern at the UT ETREC farms, where he has gotten to work on the plant science and Blount beef farms. In his free time, he loves to deer hunt, fish, spend time with friends and family, go to dirt track races and do anything outdoors.
He shared his excitement as soon as he found out he was awarded the internship for the summer and he brings hard work, dedication and a big heart to this job.
Jason said, “I am grateful and blessed for everything that has happened in my life up until now and I hope to continue this.”
He loves teaching, helping youth, and getting to talk and learn from older folks that he meets to gain seasoned experience and knowledge. He looks forward to meeting new people and learning and helping out with 4-H programs and any ag-related activities he gets to participate in this summer.
If you are out in the community and run across Jason Lawson, be sure to introduce yourself and give him a warm welcome to Union County.