Three new fellows have been selected for the Martha’s Vineyard Vision Fellowship, a program established in 2006 by the Kohlberg family to further sustainability efforts on the Island; they are Micah Agnoli, Wesley Look and Taza Vercruysse. Vision fellows receive financial support to study and work in a variety of areas vital to a sustainable future for the Island, including renewable energy and alternative transportation, farm to school and sustainable agriculture, conservation biology and fisheries management, green architecture, elderly services and healthcare. The Vision Fellowship community includes 23 current and former fellows as well as a host of Island professionals who serve as mentors.

Micah Agnoli is a freshman at Tufts University who is pursuing a dual major in environmental studies and community health. His sponsoring organization is the Edgartown Fire Department, where he has volunteered since 2009. Mr. Agnoli has completed a first responder course as well as an EMT course, and he plans to become a certified EMT by summer. He will work with his mentor, deputy fire chief Alex Schaeffer, to strengthen the relationship between the department and the Council on Aging and the Martha’s Vineyard Center for Living, including outreach to elderly residents, blood pressure screenings and File of Life update clinics. He will also work with the department and the town on researching and planning sustainability initiatives such as solar energy and energy conservation.

Wesley Look is pursuing a master of public policy degree at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a master of science in environmental policy and planning at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Both his studies and work experience have centered on climate change and energy policy. Wesley will work with the energy committees for the towns of Tisbury and West Tisbury to advance energy planning and policymaking. While his work will be multifaceted, a significant portion of Mr. Look’s time will be spent collecting and analyzing data on each town’s energy use, with the goal of producing recommendations on policy actions that could be taken to reduce energy consumption by 20 per cent by the year 2016.

Taza Vercruysse is currently completing his sophomore year at Wooster College in Ohio, focusing his coursework on environmental studies. He will work at Vineyard Power this summer, under the mentorship of Erik Peckar, where Mr. Vercruysse will be involved in researching wind and energy policy, database development, public outreach, growing the co-op membership base, and solar and smart grid initiatives. Mr. Vercruysse has a longstanding interest in renewable energy and conservation. For five summers he worked with South Mountain Company, where he helped build ecologically responsible houses and learned about integrating solar panels, wind turbines and energy-efficient heating and cooling systems into building design. He began working with Vineyard Power last summer to continue his training in renewable energy technologies.