The winning team included Will Gatens ’17, Summers Cleary ’16, team coordinator and Associate Professor of Geography Joe Nicholas, Colin Cate ’17, Steven Fernando ’16, Phil Devine ’16, Christine MacKrell ’17, Andrew Berens of Georgia State University, and Clara Ludtke ’17.
A team of five UMW geography students headed to Pensacola last fall and came back winners of the 2015 Southeastern Regional World Geography Bowl Competition.
Each year, a team represents UMW at the meeting of the Southeast Division of the Association of American Geographers, which sponsors the competition. Virginia’s undefeated team, which included UMW students and one Georgia State University graduate student, competed against seven other state teams. Teams must include students from more than one school, both genders, and graduate and undergraduate students. Many of the competitors in the bowl are graduate students, which makes UMW’s performance especially noteworthy.
UMW students also present research and visit sites of interest to geographers at the annual meeting.
UMW’s Steven Fernando ’16 was the second highest scorer overall and the highest scoring undergraduate in the competition. As a result, he traveled to the national meeting of the American Association of Geographers in San Francisco in March to compete for the southeast division in the World Geography Bowl.