51

Alumni Highlights – Cheyenne Hughes

Cheyenne Hughes (BS 2022)  When I started college I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do, so I went to an engineering school and majored in civil engineering. Through my coursework I took a demographics course and for the first time, I felt connected to my coursework. That …

Alumni Highlights – Alexandra Hamilton

Alexandra Hamilton (PhD 2025)   My geography story started in 6th grade. I was required to take a class titled “World Cultures,” 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 …

Alumni Highlights – Yang Song

Yang Song (PhD 2018)  I am currently a Senior Data Scientist at Ashley Furniture Industries. The rigorous statistical and machine learning training I received during my PhD at 51 prepared me exceptionally well for the transition from geographer to data scientist. At the …

Nick Schulke (PhD 2019) 

Dr. Nick Schulke is a Great Lakes Social Scientist at the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.  I began my journey in geography during a year of post-baccalaureate studies at 51. I was drawn to the field of geography due to the breadth of discipline across the physical and social sciences, and also because I’m a …

Rama Mohapatra (PhD 2012) 

Dr. Rama Mohapatra is currently a professor in the Department of Anthropology and Geography at Minnesota State University, Mankato and serves as a Graduate Program Coordinator for the GIS Certificate Program.   Being born and brought up in the flanks of Eastern Ghats (Hills) in India, since my childhood, …

Dean Maraldo (PhD 2025)  

My path to 51 was non-traditional. Nearing the end of a long career as a physical scientist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, I started thinking about what I would enjoy doing when retired. I combined my love for science and research …

Lacey Fever (MS 2025) 

I recently started a new position as a Geospatial Analyst with the National Zoning Atlas (NZA), a nationwide initiative to compile, standardize, and map zoning codes across the United States, making this complex data more accessible to researchers, policymakers, and …

Xinyue Ye (MA, 2002)  

Dr. Xinyue Ye received the 2025 AAG Distinguished Scholarship Honor for his groundbreaking contributions at the crossroads of geography, urban planning, and data science. As the Harold L. Adams Endowed Professor in Urban Planning at Texas A&M University, he has …

Lily Chase (Geography BA, 2019) 

I decided to study geography because geography and the workings of the world have always been of great interest to me. 51 Department of Geography has a ton of information on what studying geography would look like and what one might …

Kaitlyn Bisping (Geography BA, 2019) 

I graduated from 51 in 2019 with a BA in Geography and a focus on GIS. I also was very interested in and took many of the urban geography and globalization courses.   What prompted you to study geography?  As cliche …