Productive, fun and engaging

My experience living in Virginia for the summer as a Rudy J. Favretti Fellow sponsored by the Garden Club of Virginia was a tremendous opportunity for me both personally and professionally. This Fellowship provided me with the time, space, project and support to apply my design, representation and research skills towards the production and documentation of a summer’s worth of discoveries. The combination of gaining insight about my site from direct observation, field studies, interviews, and local libraries in addition to other archival research shaped my investigations of history, site and context from in ways that I would not have otherwise been able to do without this Fellowship.

The GCV Fellowship Committee and supervisor William D. Rieley were both extremely helpful in providing me with feedback, technical drawings expertise such as the site survey and development of an existing plan, and guidance towards my project throughout. The final report booklet was a joy to make as it challenged me to apply my skills and findings towards a specific project all my own. My project remains a keystone portfolio piece as a designer, researcher, and educator today. I learned a great deal from being in the place I was studying, meeting new people and taking advantage of the many historic sites Virginia has to offer such as Monticello, Rosewell, and Colonial Williamsburg to name a few – all important and significant to anyone interested in or pursuing a master’s degree in Landscape Architecture or allied discipline. I highly recommend this Fellowship to anyone from or not from Virginia interested in a productive, fun, and engaging summer!

Maria Counts, 2010 Favretti Fellow
Green Plains, Mathews County

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