USGIF awards $126K in scholarship funds to GEOINT students

The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) awarded $126,000 in scholarships to individuals studying geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) and related topics.

According to the foundation, this is the largest amount it has distributed to date. The scholarships are distributed annually to doctoral candidates, graduate students, undergraduate students and graduating high school seniors.

In addition to the scholarships, two awards are funded entirely by USGIF organizational members: the $10,000 Reinventing Geospatial Inc. (RGi) Scholarship for Geospatial and Engineering and the $10,000 Ken Miller Scholarship for Advanced Remote Sensing Applications. The RGi Scholarship is awarded to an undergraduate student pursuing engineering and geospatial disciplines who demonstrates financial need, and the Ken Miller Scholarship is awarded to a graduate student studying remote sensing who plans to enter the defense intelligence workforce.

“Scholarship winners were selected following a highly competitive, multi-tiered review of applications by GEOINT professionals who volunteered their time as part of USGIF’s Scholarship Subcommittee,” said Dr. Camelia Kantor, director of academic programs at USGIF. “We were impressed with the quality of applications and very pleased to see the next generation of GEOINTers—from the high school to doctoral level—already tackling major world challenges not just by using state-of-the-art technology, but also by applying creativity, logic, attention to detail, innovation and ethics.”

The 2018 USGIF scholarship winners include:

RGi Scholarship for Geospatial and Engineering

• David Runneals, Northwest Missouri State University

Ken Miller Scholarship for Advanced Remote Sensing Applications

• Joshua Michael Turner, North Carolina State University

Doctorate

• Katherine Cavanaugh, University of California, Los Angeles
• Jaclyn Guz, Clark University
• Carolynne Hultquist, Pennsylvania State University
• Christopher Olayinka Ilori, Simon Frazier University
• Scott Pezanowski, Pennsylvania State University

Graduate

• Jacob Fuson, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Cesar Jhonatan Garrido Lecca Rivera, University of Redlands
• Travis Meyer, Pennsylvania State University
• Andrew Ryan, George Mason University
• Sarah Spalding, University of Texas at Austin

Undergraduate

• Jake T. Burstein, University of South Carolina
• Milovan Dakic, Indiana State University
• Margaret Hackney, Mercyhurst University
• Haley Kathryn King, George Mason University
• Candice Lee, University of Georgia
• Pearl Leff, Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College & Lander College for Women
• Claire Mercer, Ohio State University & Sijal Institute
• Rachel Pierstorff, University of Denver

Graduating high school seniors

• Alexander Chrvala, Towson High School in Towson, Maryland; now attending the University of Mary Washington
• Srijay Kasturi, South Lakes High School in Reston, Virginia; now attending the University of Maryland
• Madyson Larson, Xenia High School in Xenia, Ohio; now attending the University of Cincinnati
• Christopher Lee, Dripping Springs High School in Dripping Springs, Texas; now attending the University of Texas at Dallas
• Keelin O’Hara, Albermarle High School in Charlottesville, Virginia; now attending the University of Mary Washington
• Adam Wallace Potter, Oak Park River Forest High School in River Forest, Illinois; now attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Brandon Staple, Longmont High School in Longmont, Colorado; now attending the University of Colorado Denver
• Maxwell Thorpe, David H. Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri; now attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Since the USGIF Scholarship Program began in 2004, the foundation has awarded more than $1.2 million to students with aspirations in GEOINT. USGIF is a nonprofit educational foundation dedicated to promoting the geospatial intelligence tradecraft and developing a stronger GEOINT Community among government, industry, academia, professional organizations, and individuals who develop and apply geospatial intelligence to address national security challenges.