Student News as of 3 March 2002

Nooz You Can Use

[ Jobs ] [ Important Dates ] [ Advisors ] [ Scholarships ] [ Lab Hours ]

Things You Can Show the Relatives

[ Achievements ] [ Student Research ]

LAGS Scholarships

Apply Now!!! Los Angeles Geographical Society Scholarships!!!

The deadline is 5 April 2002. For more information, click here.

Jobs

Apply Now!!! NASA-Funded Internships!!!

Spring/Summer 2002 and Summer/Fall 2002 Semesters

Southern California Wildfire Hazard Center

A NASA Regional Earth Science Application Center (RESAC)

Course Credit

GEOG 492 Internship in Applied Geography -- 3 units

Good Pay

$13.00/hr.

Unique Experience

A blended package that focuses on field vegetation sampling and analysis as well as laboratory-based satellite image processing in support of Center research and operational goals. Teaching modules, laboratory tours, and selected workshops help provide a well-rounded experience that can be an important addition to any student's résumé.

Requirements

Completion of, or current enrollment in, one of the following:

• GEOG 483 Introduction to Remote Sensing
• GEOG 485 Introduction to Geographic Information Systems

or both of the following:

• GEOG 200 Introduction to Research Methods
• GEOG 380 Map Interpretation and Analysis

Contact

Dr. Suzanne Wechsler

LA4-206E
(562) 985-2356
wechsler@csulb.edu

or

Dr. Christopher Lee

LA4-205
(562) 985-2358
clee@csulb.edu

Student Orientation, Advising, and Registration

SOAR held its orientation workshops for the College of Liberal Arts on the 8th of January, and eight new Geography majors participated. Dr. Rodrigue, the Department Chair, was there to meet with the new majors and answer their questions. They bring a mix of environmental, cultural, regional, and educational interests and goals. The Department is very pleased to welcome:

Mr. John Callanan Mr. Greg Cavlovic Mr. Christopher DeJesus Ms. Doreen Jeffrey

Mr. Scott Kaller Mr. Brett Katsuyama Ms. Reiko Tanihara Mr. Mike Tokumoto

Important Dates

• Winter 2002 Intersession
  • Classes start: 01/02/02
  • SOAR orientation for CLA and Geography: 01/08/02
  • Martin Luther King holiday (campus closed): 01/21/02
  • Last day of classes: 01/22/02

• Spring 2002
  • First day of classes: 01/28/02
  • Last day to drop without charge and without a "W" grade: 02/11/02
  • Last day to add or change basis of grading: 02/18/02
  • Last day to enroll in Open University: 02/25/02
  • Last day to file Request to Graduate in Fall 2002 or Winter 2003: 03/01/02
  • Last day to drop a course without the dean's signature: 04/26/02
  • Last day to drop with the dean's signature (generally only for serious and compelling accident, injury, or illness): 05/17/02
  • Last day of instruction: 05/17/02
  • Finals: 05/20/02 through 05/25/02

Advisors for Spring 2002

• Undergraduate advising
  • Dr. Frank Gossette. Make an appointment to see Dr. Gossette sometime between 11 am and 2 pm by calling Ms. Lisa Mikhail at (562) 985-4977 or e-mailing her at lmikhail@csulb.edu.

• Graduate advising
  • Dr. Chrys Rodrigue. Dr. Rodrigue maintains drop-in office hours at 5-6 pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and you can set up an appointment to see her at other times by calling her at (562) 985-4895 or, better, e-mailing her at rodrigue@csulb.edu.

Scholarships and Student Support

• Departmental Scholarships
  • The Burton Anderson Scholarship (for continuing undergraduate students)
  • The Eileen Johansen Memorial Scholarship (for continuing undergraduate students)
  • The Rodney Steiner Award (a stipend for continuing undergraduate or graduate students, in exchange for 50 hours of work in the Department)
  • The Robert Erving Memorial Scholarship (a one time award for a graduate student doing a technical geography thesis -- will be awarded either in the spring of 2002 or the spring of 2003)

• Los Angeles Geographical Society
  • $500 merit-based scholarships:
    • The Richard F. Logan Scholarships
    • The McKnight-Clemmons Scholarship
    • Century Business Solutions Scholarship

  A limited number of merit-based $500 scholarships will be awarded to undergraduate geography majors at community colleges and upper-division undergraduate geography majors at 4-year colleges and universities south of the 36th parallel in California.

  The purpose of these scholarships is to encourage talented students to continue their training and studies in geography and, generally, to foster interest in geography. These awards reward good scholarship and student involvement in the field. As merit-based scholarships, financial need is not a consideration.

  Completed applications (please use the appropriate form), current official transcript, a faculty letter of recommendation, and a typed 8½" x 11" page personal statement, must be received by close of business on Friday, the 5th of April.

  Send completed applications to the address below. Winners will be presented their awards at the May LAGS meeting (10th of May).

  Application forms and further information are available from your Geography Department office, campus Financial Aid Office, Mr. Kris Jones (LAGS President), or by writing to:

  LAGS Scholarship Committee
  c/o Michael Prichard Box 1799
  Los Angeles City College
  855 North Vermont Avenue
  Los Angeles, CA 90029

• Gamma Theta Upsilon (due date: 03/01/02, see Dr. Rodrigue for application materials)
  • Buzzard Scholarships (for undergraduate students going on to graduate school or continuing graduate students)
  • Maxfield Scholarship (junior or senior undergraduates)
  • Richason Scholarship (junior or senior undergraduates)
  • President's Scholarship (junior or senior undergraduates)

• Association of American Geographers

  The AAG will be holding its annual national conference in Los Angeles (at the Westin Bonaventure downtown) next year from March 19-23! There are a whole bunch of student competitions. There is also a GREAT need for student volunteers, who get paid $10 an hour AND receive admission to the meeting at half the student rate! You can learn more about the meeting at: http://www.aag.org/AnnualMeetings/Intro.html. If you would like to serve as a student volunteer, please contact Dr. Killian Ying of CSULA. He can be reached at (213) 343-2042.

• 2002 Student Research Competition

  CSULB will hold its annual Student Research Competition on Friday, 8 March 2002. The purpose is to focus attention on the outstanding accomplishments of students engaged in significant research and creative activity at both the graduate and undergraduate levels in all disciplines. Students must have been enrolled during either the spring or fall semesters of 2001/02 and must be nominated by a faculty member. Nomination forms are available by clicking here, and they are due no later than the 22nd of February at the Academic Projects Office (Library East 113). You can also submit the form by e-mail to Ms. Sharon Olson. Nominated students need to submit a 5 page (double-spaced) written paper (not including references) and then make a 10 minute oral presentation at this conference. There are also prizes for first ($200) and second ($100) place papers, as judged by a panel of faculty. Up to 10 students will then be selected to compete in the Annual CSU Statewide Student Research Competition, which will also be held at CSULB in early May.

• Heads Up!! Student Travel Funds for 2001-02!!

  The Forty-niner Shops have provided $14,000 for student academic travel in order to help students "travel to professional conferences and events." The College of Liberal Arts, which houses the Department of Geography, will receive up to $2,600 of those monies. To be eligible for travel assistance from this source, you have to be currently enrolled as a full-time graduate student (minimum of 6 units) or undergraduate student (minimum of 12 units). You also have to have a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0 (including any transfer units accepted by CSULB). You also have to submit a summar yof your presentation proposal or a thorough description of the purpose of travel (less than one half page), information about the conference to be attended (e.g., the call for papers they send out), a completed Student Travel Fund Request (three pages), and documentation verifying that you've been accepted as a presenter. This application package needs the Department Chair's signature (that's Dr. Chrys Rodrigue in LA4-105), and then you send it to Ms. Anna Nazarian-Peters, who can be reached at EOP, (562) 985-8528. Dr. Rodrigue has a copy of the forms. No deadline is specified but the earlier the better. This can cover conferences you have already presented at anytime after 1 July 2001. You need to submit a Student Travel Authorization Request, though, and that's supposed to be turned in two weeks before you travel. Dr. Rodrigue has one of those, too.

  Also, related to this, Associated Students also has $6,000 in its own student travel fund, which can only be used for actual transportation costs (i.e., not for conference registration). To get a copy of their form, you stop in at the A.S. Government office on the third floor of the University Student Union, Room 311. For more information, you can call them at (562) 985-5241.

Great Things Students Are Doing

Our Own Steve Newberg Wins the CSULB "Battle of the Minds"

The Department is proud to announce that Mr. Steven Newberg, graduate student, won the CSULB "Battle of the Minds" chess championship on Thursday, 8 November! There were 25-30 competitors battling for some pretty significant prizes. Steve won a computer multimedia system (and he's already a web terror without this!), a dinner for two at Marrakesh in Newport Beach, and a car wash gift certificate. There is a quid pro quo, however: He has to represent CSULB in the upcoming intercollegiate chess championships (January 2002). Our students are doing all sorts of surprising stuff around campus! Congratulations! And good luck, too!

Jorge Quintero

Geography grad student, Jorge Quintero, stopped by for graduate advising and happened to mention that, after the HTML boot camp of Geography 600 a couple of years ago, he wound up the webmaster for the Long Beach Group of the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club! Check out his elegant artistry at: http://angeles.sierraclub.org/longbch/! Way to GO, Monsieur Quintero!!!

CSULB Geography Students Win ESRI Mapping Honors!!!

Graduate students, Mike Jenkins and Shaun Healy, and recent graduate, Caroline Kolb, were fêted at the ESRI International User Conference 2001 by earning second prize in the Map Gallery Best Cartographic Publication entry was the City Street Map they had done for the City of Lakewood. Thanks to Dr. Frank Gossette for this news item, who remarked, "Map On!!!" We are way proud of your achievement, folks! For more details, check out http://www.esri.com/events/uc/results/map_gallery_results.html.

Steve Newberg

The Department just learned that one of our graduate students, Mr. Steve Newberg, has been working as a GIS technician for the Port of Long Beach. He says he's been there a couple of months already and that it's a lot of fun applying GIS and the working environment is very nice and stimulating. Way to go, mountain lion webmeister! <G>

Christiane Candelaria

Earth Science Associates, a small petroleum research/software development firm in Long Beach sought a part-time undergraduate or graduate student in geography or geology for administrative and research work. ESA specializes in quantitative analysis in oil and gas exploration and development, GIS, and creation of spatial analysis tools. Projects range from model development through building add-on tools for spatial analysis to empirical, site-specific projects for clients. ESA's clients are mainly major oil and gas companies, but they also include other consulting firms and government agencies.

The Department is delighted to learn that our own Ms. Christiane Candelaria was the student chosen for this challenging position! Congratulations!

Student Research Activities

Ms. Romey Hagen and Mr. Aziz Bakkoury, graduate students and research associates in the Southern California Wildfire Hazard Center, and Dr. Christopher Lee, will make a presentation to the Association of American Geographers in Los Angeles this March:

"Southern California Wildfire Hazards Center: A Regional Earth Science Applications Center."

Mr. Shaun Healy, graduate student and research associate in the Southern California Wildfire Hazard Center, will also be presenting at the AAG:

"Cultural geography: An experiment in hypermedia."

Ms. Valery Müller, graduate student, will also give a paper at the AAG:

"Monitoring Urban Growth with Remote Sensing in Montego Bay, Jamaica."

Ms. Müller, also went to the Urban Regional Information Systems Association (URISA), Montego Bay, Jamaica in September of 2001 to present:

"Using GIS in Urban Planning -- Updating 27 General Plan Maps in Southern California."

Mr. Thomas Ellrott, a geography graduate student, traveled to the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers in Santa Barbara in September 2001, in order to present:

"Southern California Surf Culture Through the Construction and Deconstruction of Surf-Place Images in Huntington Beach, California."

Ms. Erin Stockenberg, gave a talk with Dr. Suzanne Wechsler to the GIS Expo at Cal Poly in Pomona, May 2001:

"Environmental and Natural Resource Applications of GIS: Course Development."

Mr. Ed Huefe, a graduate student, went to the AAG meeting in New York in March 2001, where he made the following presentation:

"Across the Borderline: U.S.-Mexico Borderlands as Locus of Transformation in North American Popular Music."

A large contingent of graduate students made their way to Portland in early February 2002 for the 5th Annual Western Geography Student Conference. This group, in fact, won the prize for the most highly represented department at the meeting (and thanks to Dr. Chris Lee for supporting the students' travel to this meeting). On top of the general great attendance, students presented two papers, entitled:

"In the Line of Fire: An Investigation into the Relationship between Aspect and Fire History in the Santa Monica Mountains, 1925-1997" by Lewis Francis, Romey Hagen, Shaun Healy, and Steve Newberg.

and

"Using GIS to Update 27 General Plan Maps" by Valerie Müller

Nice job!! The Department is really proud of you! For photographs of the delegation, check out the Portland Files.

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