MGIS Student 2019 Awards and Recognition
Congratulations to our fifteen students who graduated with their MGIS degrees in May 2019! Another seven students completed their degrees in December 2018 for a total of 22 students during the 2018-19 academic year! Pictured above are the students who attended our graduation reception on May 3rd prior to the Arts, Sciences, and Engineering Graduate Student Commencement ceremony. It was wonderful to celebrate their degree completion with family, friends, faculty and staff. Visit our alumni page for placement information.
Several students received recognition through Esri-related awards and opportunities. Meric Birol and Lauren Strug were awarded Esri Student Conference Assistantships to participate in the 2019 Esri User Conference in San Diego, California this July! Additionally, Coleman Shepard was named the 2019 UMN Esri Development Center Student of the Year. Zhiwei Yan was selected as a Student Assistant for the 2019 Esri Developer Summit in Palm Springs, California.
Congratulations to Alysha Alloway and Lauren Strug who are the 2019 UMN Minnesota GIS/LIS Student Scholar Award recipients. Their joint project Twin Cities Spatial Clustering Analysis Using Twitter and Transit Data is advised by Dr. Eric Shook. Alysha and Lauren did an outstanding job representing the University of Minnesota in the student paper competition session at the 2019 Minnesota GIS/LIS Annual Conference held in St. Cloud, Minnesota this October and captured the second prize award!
A couple of our students won best map awards in the 2019 U-Spatial Mapping Prize competition. Travis Ormsby won Best Cartography (Graduate student) for his map Minnesota's Political Landscape; Alysha Alloway won Most Provocative/Transformative Map (Graduate student) for her map A Better Way to Get There.
Our location in the Twin Cities also affords students excellent summer GIS internships opportunities. For example, Alysha Alloway is working as a research assistant for the Minnesota Design Center. Meric Birol and Megan Luick are GIS interns for the Hennepin County GIS office. Xiaoran Li and Nicole Dunn are working with the Water Resources unit at the U.S. Geological Survey. Zhuo Chen is working for Dr. Ying Song developing new teaching resources. Internship experiences like these are critical for our professionally-focused program so many thanks to the agencies and organizations who provide these opportunities for our students!
Special thanks to our generous donors who contributed to the MGIS Annual Fund during our last campaign! This fund helps to support the professional development of our bright, talented students. If you would like to contribute to the MGIS Annual or Fellowship Funds, please visit our Support page and donate today! Several students mentioned above received supplemental funds from the MGIS Annual Fund to support costs associated with participating in these beneficial experiences.
Congratulations to all of our accomplished students and graduates!
