There were 141 attendees at the fall meeting held at the Blair County Convention Center, organized by our past president Joan Welch and our colleagues in the Pennsylvania Geographical Society (PGS). There were 61 papers presented in 13 sessions, 22 posters in the poster session, and 2 panel discussions. In the Student Paper competition, graduate student Carl Tompkins (SUNY Albany) received a $50 incentive award and James Anania (SUNY Geneseo) was awarded $100 for first place undergraduate paper. The PGS ran the Student Poster Competition and were tasked with evaluating many excellent entries. The first prize went to Olivia Wolff (University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown), second prize to Benjamin Frieman (SUNY Geneseo), and third prize to Emily Platania (University of Pittsburgh) at Johnstown.
Geography Bowl Competition
Teams from Kutztown, SUNY Geneseo, and West Chester competed in the Geography Bowl at the Middle States Division meeting in Altoona in 2016. West Chester was victorious! The Middle States World Geography Bowl Team at the AAG Meeting in Boston included: Kaleigh Cunningham (Kutztown), Sean McLaughlin (the top individual scorer – West Chester), Veronica Medina (SUNY Geneseo), Lesmes Mora Jerez (West Chester), Nina Schnyder (Kutztown), and Vicky Trucksess (Kutztown). Geography Bowl teams are made up of a maximum of six students of which one must be a graduate student, one an undergraduate student, one a woman, and one a man. The team members each received $300 from MSAAG for competing in Boston.