Montalto
This year's class of PEC Fellows gathers on Montalto, the high mountain across from Thomas Jefferson's "little mountain" Monticello, which PEC protected last year by purchasing a conservation easement. Even in the wake of a rainstorm, the summit of Montalto offers panoramic views in every direction, overlooking the City of Charlottesville, Monticello, the Blue Ridge Mountains and 17,000 acres of protected land. From left to right, the fellows are Carly Sieff, Julius Pasay, Dana Richards, Alex Hardee, Mallory Dolan, Sarah Tracy-Wanck, Rachel Baker, Ben Sedlins, Chad McCoull, Emily Gates, Nate Bingham and Victoria Diaz-Bonilla.

Farm Train
Rachel Baker says, "We saw the Piedmont from a ton of different angles, from all the people we talked to and all the places we went." On a farm tour in Fauquier, they visited Cows n' Corn, an agritourism endeavor. Driving the tractor in this photo is PEC's Fellowship Director Stacey Carlberg. In front is Carley Leins, a 2008 Fellowship alumnus who recently joined PEC's staff. Sarah Tracy-Wanck says, "I enjoyed learning about what matters to different people whether they were from PEC or landowners or just people in the area, whether they were born here or whether they weren't born here. What matters to them may be different from what matters to me, but I definitely learned a lot from them, even the developers."

Planting
Mallory Dolan and Alex Hardee plant herbs at the Local Food Project at Airlie in Warrenton. Emily Gates says, "It was interesting how PEC made the connections between land conservation but also local foods and farming and education. It's a really broad group of topics, but they all have a common thread."

Sleeping in the Van/ Van Signs
Julius Pasay says, "I liked getting to go on field trips that illustrated lots of things that you always learn about in classrooms, in college and in the lectures here." The fellowship included a full schedule of field trips, including mountaintop experiences on protected lands at Ovoka and Montalto, a smart growth tour of DC, and a trip to Richmond, that started at 6:45 a.m.

Richmond
In Richmond, the Fellows met with lobbyists and participated in a mock General Assembly session. Alex Hardee says, "I was really impressed by the ability PEC has to tackle the communication issue, from so many different angles... For example, I thought the developer panel was one of the most interesting things that we did and it was really interesting just to hear the way that they argued their points and potentially how you can anticipate that... I thought that was the point of the lobbying day also, in Richmond -- really professional ways of getting a central issue across to people who have the power to make a difference. I've been thinking about how so many different things we've done have tied into [communication] -- from marketing farmers markets all the way to smart growth in D.C."

4th of July
"What I thought was really cool was the breadth of ways that people care about this area and I think everybody we talked to on some level, is trying to better the situation," says Ben. "There's such a scope of people who really want to make change in this area for the better and I think that's really neat and I think it's something that can be applied internationally or where we all come from and that's really helpful and useful." Here, the Fellows celebrate the Fourth of July at Big Meadows.

Water Monitoring
PEC's Gem Bingol demonstrates how to evaluate water quality by surveying microinvertebrates. Emily says, "One of my favorite parts was learning about all the potential future careers in environmentalism, things that you actually can do as opposed to just being idealistic... That was really inspiring for someone who just graduated from college... It's nice to know that you can do something you love."