HERNDON, Va.- The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) today announced the recipients of its 2010 Scholarship Program, for what was the Foundation’s most competitive year yet.
“I’m proud that our Foundation is playing a pivotal role in these students’ futures as well as that of the geospatial intelligence tradecraft.”
This year, the Foundation awarded $86,000 to 19 recipients. Four Ph.D. candidates, six master’s students, six undergraduates and three graduating high school seniors received scholarships from this year’s program. High school recipients received $2,000 scholarships, and all others received $5,000 scholarships.
“Thanks to the generous support of our membership, the scholarship program continues to gain momentum and give promising students the opportunity to advance their education,” said USGIF President Keith J. Masback. “I’m proud that our Foundation is playing a pivotal role in these students’ futures as well as that of the geospatial intelligence tradecraft.”
All scholarship recipients were chosen based on their academic and professional excellence in a field related to the geospatial intelligence tradecraft. Qualified candidates were selected by the Foundation’s Scholarship Subcommittee.
The 2010 Scholarship Program recipients are:
Rick Crowsey works as a forensic geographer and is a doctoral student at the University of Southern Mississippi. His research focuses on spatial frequency-based information extraction from imagery and the intersection of spatial information and the law. Crowsey’s work and research takes him to accidents, disasters and courtrooms.
Nicholas DiGruttolo holds a bachelor of science in geomatics, summa cum laude. He is a licensed professional surveyor and mapper. He is currently a field engineering services manager for geospatial business unit of Northrop Grumman Corp. and is pursuing master of science with a concentration in geomatics from the University of Florida.
Sarah Eason is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in geography and GIS at Texas State University – San Marcos. She is most interested in mechanical and civil drawing disciplines. During her first two GIS courses, she earned an ESRI Certification in creating, editing and managing geodatabases in ArcCIS and the ESRI Certificate in ArcGIS Spatial Analyst.
Alexander Gole is currently pursuing his bachelor’s degree in geography at the Université Paris Denis-Diderot VII. In 2009 he undertook an internship in Lille, France at Systeme d’Information a Reference Spatiale, where he helped create an urban atlas for the European Commission. Recently he participated in an internship at ESRI working on the program ArcOpole.
Kristin Hopper is an honors student at George Mason University, majoring in GIS and geographical science. She attended the Academy of Science in Loudoun County, Va., and was a National Honor Society member. She won a second place award at the Regional Science Fair for a Mars mapping project where she worked with NASA, NOAA and USGS.
Lauren Kaiser is a rising senior at the University of Maryland majoring in geography with minors in geographic information systems and Spanish. She is currently pursuing her doctorate at Alabama A&M University. She is also interning at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, researching the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and working on a regional climate change adaption project.
Nalishebo Kaunda obtained her bachelor’s of science in natural resource management and masters in geography from West Virginia University. She is currently a GIS analyst. Her awards include GISP, International ESRI Special Achievement in GIS and a Tennessee Valley BRAC Mapping Award. She plans to complete her Ph.D. at Alabama A&M University in natural resource management.
Adam Kerr is a master’s candidate in Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. An alumnus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Kerr’s research involves technical ISR and its utility in emerging transnational issues. Kerr is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Daniel Ladd recently graduated from Lewisburg Area High School and is currently attending Middlebury College where he plans to major in geography and economics. Last fall, he assisted a Bucknell University professor by plotting known environmental problems in Kyrgyzstan using GIS to see if proximity to these issues correlates with any changes in perceptions of environmental problems.
Heather McColgan joined the U.S. Army after graduating high school. She eventually began working as an EMT after being honorably discharged and received associates of applied science in radiology. In 2009, she returned to college to complete her bachelor’s degree in geographic information science at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi and has completed a successful internship with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
Sterling Raehtz has received grants from the Department of Homeland Security, National Institute of Justice, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies for his research in point pattern analysis of terrorist events Michigan State University, where he is currently pursuing his master’s degree. Raehtz is also the cadet battalion commander for Army ROTC at MSU.
Shadrock Roberts is a Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia. He has developed remote sensing methods for refugee camp population estimates as a fellow for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is exploring the use of crowd-sourced humanitarian information in Haiti.
Kenneth Robertson focused in both geographic information science and computer science as an undergraduate. Currently he is working towards a master of science in GIS at Central Michigan University, as well as a graduate certification in data mining. As a research assistant, he is creating spatial data mining tools for non-linear datasets more common to human geography, social science and business applications.
Michael Ryan is a senior at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh pursuing a degree in geography with a minor in applied GIS. Upon graduation, he plans to directly enter graduate school for a master’s degree in GIS. Ryan’s career aspiration is to work for a government agency where he can apply his knowledge of geospatial intelligence to national defense.
Ken Simmons is a second year student in the geographic information science master’s degree program at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. He participated in the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s 2010 internship program and intends to pursue a career with NGA upon graduation.
Christy Steffke is an undergraduate earth science honors scholar at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, where she specializes and performs research in geomorphology, GIScience and remote sensing. She is an active participant in the university’s academic community and plans to attend graduate school in the fall of 2011 to further explore GIScience.
Jennifer C. Veilleux is a Ph.D. candidate in the geosciences department of Oregon State University, focusing on water resource management. She is a former environmental and energy security imagery analyst for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and a former Boren Fellow and visiting scholar at the Central European University. Veilleux holds a master’s and bachelor’s of science in environmental science from the University of New Haven.
Narine Wandrey is a math and technology-oriented student who recently graduated from Claudia T. Johnson High School in San Antonio, Texas. She began a NOAA Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network station in her home to report weather data for mapping purposes at home and formed a student-led envirothon team, receiving an Earthwatch fellowship from the Earthwatch Institute to study tectonics on the Rio Grande Rift with a Los Alamos Laboratory researcher.
Thomas Zumbado is a master’s student at the University of Utah. He also has a bachelor’s of science in both geography and political science. Prior to his academic matriculation, he served as a firefighter for Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina and before that, was a U.S. Army artillery sergeant and paratrooper.
USGIF is a non-profit educational foundation dedicated to promoting the geospatial intelligence tradecraft and developing a stronger GEOINT Community with government, industry, academia, professional organizations and individuals who apply geospatial intelligence to address national security challenges. For more information, please visit www.USGIF.org.