When I boarded the bus for Chapel Hill, North Carolina as part of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Chamber2Chamber trip, I expected to be inspired. What I did not expect was to find so much of home and so much to bring back with me.

I am a proud native of Charlottesville and a product of the very pipeline our community has worked so hard to build. I attended Piedmont Virginia Community College before transferring to UVA in 2021 as an inaugural Piedmont Scholar, an award that covered my full tuition and fees. Today I am pursuing my doctorate in Higher Education and Administration at UVA, and I carry that journey with me everywhere I go. Chapel Hill was no different.

The delegation was one I will not forget. Chamber members, business leaders, elected officials, and community stakeholders all brought something to the table, and I learned from every single person in the room. I also had the privilege of incredible conversations with five leaders who mean a great deal to this community: Charlottesville Mayor Juandiego Wade, Albemarle County Executive Jeffrey Richardson, PVCC President Jean Runyon, United Way of Greater Charlottesville President and CEO Ravi Cooper, and Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Andrea Copeland. I made it a point throughout the trip to ask each of them the same question: what leadership means to them and how they navigate the opportunities and challenges unique to their role. Every answer was different. Every answer stayed with me.

Hearing from local business owners about their journeys and the reasons they do what they do was one of the most grounding parts of the trip. Good people are everywhere, and this delegation was full of them.

One of the things that stood out most to me was the transfer partnership between Du

rham Tech and UNC-Chapel Hill. The moment I heard about it, I recognized it. It is the same intentional pipeline we

have right here between PVCC and UVA. Hearing directly from Dr. Sharleen Tryanor, Director of the Clinical Trial Research Associate Program at Durham Tech, and Kelsey Williams, Assistant Director of Employer Engagement at the UNC Career Center, made it real. What impressed me most was the focus on preparation, making sure students are not just academically ready but truly positioned to enter the workforce or keep going in their education. That kind of commitment to a student’s full journey is something every community should be working toward.

During our tour of UNC-Chapel Hill, I learned about the Carolinian Covenant, a need-based aid program that removes financial barriers for low-income students. I will be honest, I got emotional. One of our student tour guides was a Carolinian Covenant recipient and the way she talked about what that support meant to her stopped me completely. I saw myself in her story. Programs like the Carolinian Covenant and the Piedmont Scholars Award here at home are not just generous gestures. They are strategic investments with a real and lasting return. Both UVA and UNC-Chapel Hill have built remarkable financial aid offerings that meet students where they are, because the cost of a degree should never be the thing that decides who gets to pursue one. When we clear those obstacles for students who have the drive to succeed, everybody wins.

The one thing that came up in every single session was partnerships. UNC’s work with the Town of Chapel Hill, the connection between higher education and the business community, the fare-free transit system that takes mobility off the table as a barrier, none of it fell into place on its own. It was built on purpose, one relationship at a time. That same truth came through in my conversations with Mayor Wade, County Executive Richardson, President Runyon, President and CEO Cooper, and President and CEO Copeland. Every one of them, in their own way, said the same thing: the most meaningful work happens when people decide to build together instead of alone.