Janet Charles

Lazarus Lynch, a senior at Food and Finance High School, poses with Human Ecology Dean Alan Mathios at Cornell Cooperative Extension's centennial celebration.

Janet Charles

The chefs who prepared the meal for CCE's centennial pose in New York City Nov. 1.

Janet Charles

Students from the Food and Finance High School prepare the evening's meal.

For 100 years, a mission of Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) has been to partner with the College of Human Ecology to improve the human condition, "not just engage in abstract theory and detached analysis," but to "draw conclusions with real, real impact," said Alan Mathios, the Rebecca Q. and James C. Morgan Dean of the College of Human Ecology, speaking at a 100th anniversary dinner event at the Cornell Club in Manhattan Nov. 1.

The meal was prepared with the help of students from the Food and Finance High School, which has been a "community partner" with CCE since 2007. CCE helps the school maintain a fish farm and hydroponics lab. The hors d'oeuvres, for example, featured tilapia cakes from fish raised at the school."The earliest outreach efforts on behalf of the College [of Human Ecology] began with a focus on the complexities of the household and family needs, improvements which could have a multitude of social impacts," Mathios said. "Education, nutrition, health, aging and the plain cost of running a household -- actually life hasn't changed that much when you think about those things."

Communities have changed, though, Mathios said, particularly in regard to family work life, the dynamics of health and illness and the aging of America. Such college programs as the RTRgist (Gist-enhanced Reducing the Risk) program, he said, is an example of how extension uses research findings on risk and decision making to help teens learn how to make better decisions regarding sexual health, healthy eating and fitness.

Despite difficulties associated with the economic downtown, Mathios said he was optimistic about CCE's future. "I think the federal government understands now what we've known for a long time: that creating research just to go into academic journals is not enough, and extending it and making it matter is what it's about. So we'll be there," he said.

Also speaking at the event was Don Tobias, associate director of CCE, who noted that extension in New York City has a presence in every borough, more than 120 employees and the ability to communicate in more than five languages. CCE, he said, has for 100 years been "doing good with research ... and changing peoples lives."

The Food and Finance High School, for example, is in the 92nd percentile citywide, and more than 90 percent of its students go on to a post-secondary education. With new funding, the school will soon build a state-of-the-art greenhouse on its roof. The school already has more than 7,000 tilapia, which Tobias described as Cornell red, and which he said New York City restaurants are lining up for.

The CCE relationship with the school also has resulted in the school's student government becoming a 4-H Club, and students receiving training as nutrition educators and having access to numerous internships.

Lazarus Lynch, a senior at Food and Finance, described his experience at the school and with CCE. He had a summer internship his freshman year teaching in his local community in Jamaica, Queens, about food and nutrition. He has also traveled to Washington, D.C., Des Moines, Iowa, and to Beijing, where he conducted soybean research. His experiences, he said, "taught me to view food in a totally new and life-sustaining way.

"I realize how greatly impacted my life has been as a result of Cooperative Extension," Lynch said. "And the lesson I've learned from being raised in a struggling family and also a struggling community is never to despise small beginnings."

The event, which was part of a centennial lectures series this year, was hosted by the College of Human Ecology and Cornell Cooperative Extension.

David Kessel is a freelance journalist in New York City.