China Study Abroad: Summer 2014 Participants

Denny, Kevin	Kevin is a student in his 5th year at UMD pursuing a dual B.S. in Civil Engineering and Geographical Sciences. He has participated in undergraduate research with Dr. Elise Miller-Hooks in the Transportation Engineering department, contributing to the papers "Efficient Dynamic Distribution of Security Assets in Transit Systems" and "The Role of Topology in Overall Network Resilience." His past work experience includes internships with the United States Census Bureau and the consumer product company, Unilever. Kevin is a recipient of both the Dean's Scholarship upon his matriculation to UMD and the BSOS Summer 2014 Scholars Award. After his graduation in May 2015, Kevin hopes to pursue graduate education in Transportation Planning.
Fincher, Bethany	Bethany Fincher is a senior at UMD majoring in GIS and minoring in Sustainability and Global Poverty. She is one of eightoutstanding students to receive a scholarship for an honors research program in 2014, focusing on the challenges of rapid urbanization in China. Bethany is very active in the campus community and a member of GEOG’s Honors Program, Primannum Honor Society, and the Alpha Omicron Pi Women’s Fraternity. She is an advocate for Sustainable UMD and this past spring, volunteered as a recycling and compost educator at the University’s annual Maryland Day. Since 2010, Bethany has been an intern at Wilmot Sanz Architecture and Planning, a healthcare design firm, and assisted in the development of design concepts for the pediatric department at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Northern Virginia. In the future, she hopes to utilize her skills in GIS and remote sensing to further her academic interest in sustainable design and urban planning.
Greenebaum, Robert	Robert is a senior at UMD majoring in Geographic Information Systems and minoring in Astronomy. In the summer of 2014, he received a research scholarship from the Department of Geographical Sciences for an honors research program in China. Along with some of his classmates he was published in the Minor Planet Bulletin in 2014 for discovering that asteroid 3905 Doppler was a synchronous binary asteroid. He is currently working as a GIS Technician for Datastory Consulting in Baltimore where he helps conduct location analytics on commercial properties across the country, and creates both web based and paper maps that help clients make better business decisions. Robert is an active member of Alpha Phi Omega national coed service fraternity. In the fall of 2013, he served on the Alpha Phi Omega executive board as historian. He has been accepted to a 5 – year BS/MS program in the Department of Geographical Sciences at UMD. Upon completion of his masters, Robert plans to pursue a career in GIS.

Kowalewski, Lorena	Lorena Kowalewski is a senior majoring in Environmental Science and Policy, with a concentration in Land Use studies, and minoring in International Development and Conflict Management. Throughout her four years at UMD, Lorena has been very involved with the Alternative Breaks program, study abroad trips and America Reads America Counts. She has received her honors citation from the Honors College, and has been on the Dean’s list since her junior year. Lorena is also part of the Delta Gamma fraternity and the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Education Academic Excellence Society. She has held multiple internships working to support environmental conservation in the Anacostia watershed as well as working for Facilities Planning for the University of Maryland College Park. In the future, Lorena hopes to pursue a career that combines international and environmental issues.
Mastrocola, Chelsea	Chelsea was born and raised in the Suburbs of Philadelphia. She is studying Geographical Science and double minoring in Sustainability and Global Poverty. Chelsea is an active member of the UMD community through the Student Sustainability Committee, Alpha Phi Fraternity and the Geography Club. Although her undergraduate studies are coming to a close, she is excited to take on new responsibilities such as sitting on the board for UMD’s Sustainability Fund, a committee that allocates funds to sustainability initiatives on campus. As an honors student, she has been accepted into the 5-year master program in Geography in the Department of Geographical Science at UMD. She plans to continue to pursue her PhD in Sustainable Development. Her goal is to integrate her knowledge in geography and sustainable development in order to facilitate more efficient urban areas.
Sike, Lydia	Lydia Li, a senior majoring in Geographical Information System and minoring in Environmental Economics and Policy, is one of the nine outstanding students to receive an honors research scholarship to China. To gain more experience in the field of Geography, she successfully designed a data collection, data analysis, and mapping process which created mapping imageries to illustrate spatial trends and patterns of socio-economic conditions in Montgomery County during the summer of 2013. In the fall of 2013, Lydia obtained a position to work on a NASA project titled “Mapping Impervious Surfaces Globally at 30m Resolution Using Global Land Survey Data”, where she efficiently classified numerous satellite images and helped to publish final results. In the summer of 2014, Lydia received a scholarship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences for an internship at its Lab for Digital Agriculture - Ecology Group. Lydia is the first generation of honor students accepted into the new 5-year BS/MS Program at the Department of Geographical Sciences at UMD. After she receives her Master’s degree in the spring of 2016, she will consider further pursuit of a PhD degree in Geography while contributing to research related to Land Use Land Cover Change.

Turner, Sean	Sean Turner is a senior at UMD double majoring in Geographical Sciences and Government and Politics. He was born and raised in Washington D.C., an experience that he credits for shaping his worldview, as it has allowed him to see social and political changes up close, while engaging with people from a variety of ethnicities, nationalities and demographic groups. Along with being one of the exceptional scholars to travel to China for honors research, Sean has also traveled to Croatia through the UMD-Study Abroad program, and used that opportunity to gain an additional honors research project, focusing on historic emigration from the island of Vis, with support from the island’s local government on analysis and research. He is a “Be The Solution” Scholar for the 2014-2015 academic year, and has been invited to join the OAES and W.E. Dubois Honors Societies. Sean was invited and accepted into the 5^th Year BS/MS Graduate School program through the Geography Department at the University of Maryland, beginning Graduate School and finishing Undergraduate Studies in his Senior Year. Sean hopes to use his academic and personal experiences to pursue a career in Foreign Service as a member of an NGO, focusing on developing countries, as well as the opportunity to teach in lower income areas of the U.S.