Alexandra Hamilton (PhD 2025)
My geography story started in 6th grade. I was required to take a class titled 鈥淲orld Cultures,鈥� essentially an introductory human geography course for middle school students. I immediately fell in love with learning about different people and places, but most of all, I fell in love with the maps.
My teacher at the time recognized my passion for the subject and asked me to participate on her Maps, Graphs & Charts team in the University Interscholastic League, an extracurricular academic competition. Despite having the flu, I placed first, and the rest, as they say, is history. The following year they made me compete one grade level up, where I placed third and cemented my title as Ms. Maps Graphs & Charts.
After our family relocated to Europe, I continued my geography studies as part of the International Baccalaureate diploma and went on to study geography and education studies at Oxford Brookes University and geospatial analytics at the University of College London. I worked as a geospatial analyst for a few years before starting my PhD in geography at 51猎奇.
I started my PhD program at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, studying and teaching entirely from home. It wasn鈥檛 until my second year that I was able to step onto campus or meet any of the faculty in person! Teaching was my absolute favorite part of my time at 51猎奇. Despite a background in GIS, I spent five years teaching Geography 110: The World 鈥� People and Regions. Each semester I took a new group of students on a journey around the world to learn more about the people and places of different regions, and of course, to study the maps. I loved sharing my passion for geography with each cohort of students, and I always stopped to smile at the thought that the 6th grade version of myself would be overjoyed that I was teaching her favorite course.
I was very active on campus, acting as a graduate student representative and serving as Vice President and President of the Alpha Mu chapter of Gamma Theta Upsilon. My fellow graduate students and I worked hard to plan fun geography events each semester and to grow the geography community beyond the department. Each year I had the privilege of hosting the GeoBowl, something I hope has continued since my departure.
I finished my PhD in 2025 and have since began a new job as a GIS Analyst for the City of Sheboygan. I love being able to apply my geography background in a meaningful way and continue to serve Wisconsin communities. I recently passed my license to fly drones as part of my work, and I am currently working to obtain my GISP. My advice to geography students would be to never stop learning, as there is always something new to discover.