Tess Majors Foundation sponsoring paid internships at Project GROWS

The Tess Majors Foundation is sponsoring four paid summer positions for local high school students at Project GROWS, the Augusta County nonprofit focused on connecting locals to nutritious food.

The commitment from the foundation, established in the memory of Tess Majors, a St. Anne’s-Belfield alum and former Augusta Free Press intern, is for five years.

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Apply now!

• Applications for the 2026 Youth Leader in Agriculture program are open now.
• More information and instructions on how to apply can be found at www.projectgrows.org/yla.

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We’ve had an all-star lineup of interns over the years – one with a law degree, another is a local TV news anchor, a third has worked for ESPN and CBS Sports.

Tess is the one whose music is on my phone.

She wrote about the local music scene for us in the spring semester of 2019, as she was on her way to graduating from St. Anne’s-Belfield.

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ICYMI: Articles by Tess Majors (2019)

• Augusta County music scene: What to love, what it lacks
• Accessibility for all: Sarah’s app idea
• Local government matters: Civic engagement at Waynesboro City Council
• The musical melting pot: A look into life at the Music Resource Center

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Her life was cut short, tragically, toward the end of her first semester at Barnard College in New York City; she was murdered during an attempted robbery on Dec. 11, 2019.

Her parents, Inman and Christy Majors, established the Tess Majors Foundation in 2024, with the goal of giving young people opportunities to participate in music, nature and arts activities, with a focus on doing so in communities in rural areas that are not often the focus of foundation support.

The Foundation’s activities here in our area include scholarships for Nature Camp in Rockbridge County, accessible nature observation spaces at Camp Light in Waynesboro, and student internships at the Music Resource Center in Charlottesville.

The support for Project GROWS will offer paid positions for high school juniors and seniors in that nonprofit’s Youth Leaders in Agriculture program. Over an eight-week period, students will gain experience in sustainable farming and outdoor education working on the Project GROWS Farm and Waynesboro Education Farm, supporting community-based food access initiatives, and learning about equitable food system models.

The YLA program has served 51 students, 13 of whom have returned for advancing levels of leadership.

By combining education and community engagement, the program helps youth develop job readiness skills in leadership, teamwork and responsibility while opening doors to various career pathways in agriculture and beyond.

“Nature education and connecting across communities were two things very important to Tess,” Christy Majors said. “The YLA program does important work in both of these areas as well as providing much needed paid internships, mentoring, and on-the-job experience for local teens. We are proud to support this program through the Tess Majors Foundation.”