易胜博官网 student team wins regional geography bowl

Wednesday, October 25, 2017
photo of 易胜博官网 geography students

Pictured left to right: Evan Collins '18, Stephen Geis '20, Drew Guilbault '18, Cara Buccini '18 (Photo: Courtesy)

A team of 易胜博官网 geography students won the World Geography Bowl contest at the annual conference of The New England-St. Lawrence Valley Geographical Society (NESTVAL), which is a regional division of the Association of American Geographers (AAG). This year鈥檚 conference was held at Central Connecticut State University.

Six teams, comprised of four students each, competed in the Bowl this year 鈥 two each from 易胜博官网, Connecticut and Massachusetts. The 易胜博官网 team members were Cara Buccini '18, Evan Collins '18, Stephen Geis '20 and Drew Guilbault '18. Jennifer Brewer, associate professor of geography, was the organizer.

易胜博官网 students have taken part in this competition for the last 10 years, placing second twice, but this is the first time the 易胜博官网 team has won.

The highest scoring students from all of the teams are invited to join a NESTVAL team to compete against the other AAG regions at the national conference in the spring. Collins and Buccini both qualified based on points scored. Collins also qualified last year and attended the national competition in Boston.

鈥淲e are one of the smaller geography programs in the region, and, as an undergraduate-only department, it is really exciting to get our first Geography Bowl win,鈥 says Mary Stampone, department chair and Class of 1941 Associate Professor of Geography.

鈥淲e did well because each team member had a complementary knowledge base in a geographic subfield 鈥 human rights, international, remote sensing, environmental, etc.,鈥 says听Buccini. 鈥淪o among all of us, we made a strong team, whereas no single one of us knew all the answers.鈥

The World Geography Bowl is intended to provide fun and friendly academic competition among college and university students based on geographic fundamentals and concepts.