MGIS Student 2024 Awards and Recognition
Congratulations to our eight students who graduated with their MGIS degrees in 2024! We enjoyed celebrating with friends and family at the spring MGIS Graduation Reception held at the Campus Club last May. Our graduates are pictured above (back row from left to right: Owen Connolly, Carl Sones, Mattie Gisselbeck, Sebastian Brauer, Zain Siyal; front row left to right: Yaxuan Zhang, Tzu-Yu Ma, Deepika Tamilselvan). Eric Gibson graduated in fall 2024. Visit the job placement page to see what lies ahead for these talented graduates.
Our students received several awards from Esri. Kyle Olson received a 2024 Esri User Conference Student Assistantships plus MGIS professional development funds to cover the cost of his airfare to San Diego, California. Mattie Gisselbeck was named the 2024 UMN Esri Innovation Program (EIP) Outstanding Student of the Year and spent summer 2024 in Redlands, California as part of the competitive Esri Summer Internship program. Following her internship, Mattie was hired to work with the Professional Services team as an Associate Technical Consultant.
Several students received recognition at the 2024 MN GIS/LIS annual conference in Duluth. Leah Rumon, who worked for the City of Apple Valley and started the MGIS program in Fall 2024, was awarded the Minnesota GIS/LIS Emerging Professional Award. This award recognizes individuals who are in the early stages of their GIS career and demonstrate an understanding of GIS community, technology, and concepts above and beyond what might be expected. MGIS graduate Jessica Fendos (MGIS 2006), who currently works for LOGIS, received the Polaris Leadership Award that celebrates active, established leaders in the geospatial community who are inspiring and leading us through their contributions, energy, and creativity. The 2024 MN GIS/LIS Student Scholarship awards for the University of Minnesota went to Meicheng Xiong (Ph.D. Geography) in the graduate student category and Will Arent (B.S. in Geography/GIS minor) in the undergraduate student category.
Our students also gained valuable professional development experience through graduate assistantships working as teaching or research assistants for partners such as U-Spatial, the Polar Geospatial Center, the GEMS Informatics Lab, the Borchert Map Library, and the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs. Thanks to these partners for supporting our students with such beneficial learning opportunities.
Finally, a shout out to all our students who participated in internships in 2024 including MnGeo, MnDOT, Directorate Fellowship program (US Federal government), the National Park Service, and local government agencies. We are grateful to the Minnesota GIS community for providing excellent internship and professional development experiences for our students.
Congratulations to all our students and graduates for their accomplishments in 2024!
