We were first introduced to Julia Pryde in August 2003 when she was a student in Dr. Mike Rosenzweig’s Principles of Biology course at Virginia Tech. Julia stood out as a natural-born teacher/scholar. Her love of science and deep respect for nature spoke loud and clear. Passionate, organized, and a real people-person, Julia quickly became known as a beacon of hope for the future.

SEEDS (“Seek Education, Explore, DiScover”, www.seedsguys.org) is a non-profit youth education organization based in Blacksburg. SEEDS was founded in 1995 by Dave Deshler and Mike Rosenzweig. Julia began volunteering for SEEDS in 2004. By that time, Julia was well known and respected by her peers and by her professors, including Dr. Mary Leigh Wolfe, Virginia Tech Department of Biological Systems Engineering. In addition to her activities in the community with SEEDS, Julia was known for presenting the VT administration with a university-wide composting feasibility study.

In September, 2005, Julia was nominated by her peers to serve as an officer of the VT Chapter of SEEDS. We have enjoyed and enormously benefited from Julia’s work in our peer and children’s programs.

Julia is already sorely missed. She was extremely bright, intelligent, intuitive, and flexible, with a high degree of creativity and integrity. She rallied her friends into action and was not one to let challenges stop her from trying. Most importantly, Julia was known as a most wonderful, friendly, yet serious “old soul”. The sparkle of her eyes, her smile, and laugh are unforgettable. Our love goes out to Julia’s family and friends. She is irreplaceable.

How SEEDS will dedicate programs in Julia’s honor.  

We want to take Julia’s energy and spirit and turn her ideas into lasting and meaningful action.  All donations in Julia’s memory will go into a line-item that will support two important SEEDS endeavors that Julia was interested in:  To help financially underprivileged children attend our summer environmental and community field camps.  Some of the funds can be used during the school year to assist in our local watershed education project.  Julia had been helping with that project for five years.

SEEDS is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.  Please link to the membership page here, to print out a form to mail your donation with, or click on the “click and pledge” box below.