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John Hayes
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Congratulations to the Salem State University team for placing first in the annual New England - St. Lawrence Valley (NESTVAL) Geographical Society conference GeoBowl at Framingham State University on October 18, 2019. NESTVAL is the regional division of the National American Association of Geographers (AAG).
Each fall, NESTVAL hosts a conference at a regional college or university where students and faculty can present their research and where students from different institutions match wits in a Geography Bowl, competing for bragging rights for their school, and a chance to compete at the World Geography Bowl at the national AAG conference in spring. This year there were six teams in the World Geography Bowl with four competitive rounds for each team. The Salem State team was 4-0 through the rounds and then did superbly in the championship round against a strong team from the University of New Hampshire.
The team included geo-information science (GIS) graduate students Georgie Driver and Victor Pavao, and undergraduate GIS and geography and sustainability students Zach Serino and Michelle Mazares-Monga. Victor was the MVP for the tournament, scoring the most points individually out of all participants. He has been invited to compete on NESTVAL's all-star team which will compete against the eight other regional divisions in the national World Geography Bowl competition at the Denver AAG annual meeting in April 2020. The Salem State Geography Bowl team was coached by professors John Hayes and Ana Emlinger.
In addition to the Geography Bowl, three faculty members from the geography and sustainability department made presentations at the NESTVAL conference on Climate Change Education: Ana Emlinger, John Hayes, and Stephen Young.
Participation and presentation at the annual NESTVAL conference is an important part of professional development in this discipline, and Salem State’s Geography and Sustainability Department and the graduate geo-information science program were well represented thanks to the hard work of faculty and students and generous support from the geography and sustainability department, the college of arts and sciences and the academic affairs office.
Salem State University's Geography and Sustainability Department is slated to host the NESTVAL conference in October 2020 and hopes to make a repeat performance at the next regional Geography Bowl.