NMU EEGS Students Attend American Association of Geographers Conference - Sustainability Hub for Innovation & Environment

Two weeks ago students who are a part of the Earth, Environmental, and Geographical
Sciences Department at Northern Michigan University had the opportunity to attend the
American Association of Geographers conference hosted in Kalamazoo. Students and faculty
were able to learn about different projects that Geographers in the East Lakes/West Lakes AAG
divisions were working on. This gave students and staff great ideas about what Northern
Michigan University can implement regarding sustainability. Some topics that participants
learned about include how climate action is important within research, water waste regarding AI
(which is generated to cool the supercomputers), and gentrification in Puerto Rico, to name a few
examples. NMU attendee Jenna Garwood felt that seeing all of these examples of different
research topics “gave [them] a newfound confidence and inspiration for [their] own capstone
project next semester.”

A lot of graduate students attended this conference, however NMU’s group mainly
consisted of undergraduate students. This gave them the opportunity to think about what they
would like to pursue in the future. EEGS student Lani Moleski commented on how they “have
been toying with the idea of graduate school and seeing so many successful people in that
position helped motivate me to start applying to schools.” Isabelle Honkomp felt similarly since
she “learned what other schools were like, specifically grad school opportunities.” This
conference helped students see research examples, narrow down their focus topic, and think if
they want to continue their education in the future.

The conference also provided an important opportunity for a lot of these students to gain
experience presenting what sustainable projects and research that they are working on in
Marquette. Some faculty and student research projects that were presented include:
Avery Case & Julia Janssen: University Campus Food Waste Reduction Strategy: Perceived
Effectiveness of Different Messaging & Framing Campaigns
Ryan Tallmadge: Superior Hiawatha Transportation
Lola Rigano: Stakeholders’ Engagement on Sustainable School Garden Implementation: What it
Means and What it Needs
Isabelle Honkomp: Marquette 2049: Preparing the Community for the Future
Jelili Adebiyi: Growers’ Adoption of USDA GAP, Other Harmonized GAP & Group Produce
Audits: Drivers, Constraints, and Fostering Improved Implementation and Exploratory
Investigation of the Plastic Consumption Habits of Marquette County Residents, Upper
Peninsula Michigan
Justine Nakintu: Agro-Climatic Suitability Mapping for Underutilized Crops: A Case of Jackfruit
in Uganda
Katelyn Younglove: Wet & Dry Spell Variability in Southwestern Ohio

Congratulations to the undergraduates who won awards for their projects: Isabelle Honkomp,
Katelyn Younglove, Avery Case, and Julia Janssen.

The ability to go to the conference to learn new ideas, share what the Marquette community is
doing, and gain experience as geographers was extremely beneficial.

If you want to learn more about AAG and this conference then check out their website here:
https://aageastlakes.wpengine.com/?page_id=447

Written by: Isabelle Honkomp