MGIS Student 2020 Awards and Recognition

Congratulations to our eight students who graduated with their MGIS degrees in May 2020 and August 2020!  Another six students completed their degrees in December 2019 for a total of 14 students during the 2019-20 academic year! Visit our alumni page for details. Due to COVID-19 we were unable to have our usual in-person celebration at the MGIS Graduation Reception, however, our graduates were mailed gifts from the program and joined in a virtual celebration.

COVID also denied our students the opportunity to secure Esri UC Student Conference Assistantships and other awards, however, Travis Ormsby was named the 2020 UMN Esri Development Center Student of the Year. Travis was also the graduate student recipient of the 2020 UMN Minnesota GIS/LIS Student Scholar Award. Cole Anderson was recognized for this same award in the undergraduate category and is now a graduate student in the MGIS program. There was not a student paper competition this year but Travis and Cole were each awarded a cash prize.

A couple of our students won best map awards in the 2020 U-Spatial Mapping Prize competition. Travis Ormsby won Best Cartography (Graduate student) for his map Minnesota's Political Landscape while Alysha Alloway won Most Provocative/Transformative Map (Graduate student) for her map A Better Way to Get There.

Congratulations to all of our accomplished students and graduates!