Notes from 2020 graduates to faculty

I am so thankful that I got to be a part of the Geography family at Rutgers. I would like to thank all of the amazing professors that are so passionate about their work as well as their students. I’m also thankful for all of the friends that I’ve made from RUGS as well as the unforgettable memories that were made at AAG. 

Thank you!

Morgan Astorino

To Prof. Kevin St. Martin,

     I really enjoy your GIS classes! They made me think more about spatial analysis, and that was the first time I found out how math could connect with geography. In addition, during the senior year's Aresty Research Assistant Program, thank you so much for inspiring me and expanding my ideas to make them more meaningful, so that I could finally successfully use R programming to perform some statistical analysis to investigate the variations in fishing communities! Moreover, at the same time, I kept thinking about the combination of math and geography, and I would like to keep on this way and go further if I have a chance!

Best regards,

Wenrui Zhao

To Prof. Michael Siegel,

     I learned a lot from your cartography classes! Thank you very much for holding those discussions after classes, they made me think more deeply about each of my projects and helped me to flexibly apply the ideas taught in class! What is more, I found lots of those ideas used in cartography can also be used in other places, and the most common ones are the graphs and posters -- to make the colors look consistent for easy reading and to use darker colors on more important things for emphasizing. Though I probably will not keep progressing on cartography, I believe that I will keep applying those ideas in other fields in the future!

Best regards,

Wenrui Zhao

The geography department is like a warm family to me. Every professor I met (Professor Gabriel, Professor Robinson, Professor O'keefe, Professor Rhiney, Professor Schneider, Professor St. Martin...) was passionate about their teaching and provided me with a beautiful journey to the field of geography. They also provided me with many suggestions and many wonderful opportunities in my undergraduate years. These precious experiences will always be cherished by me. Thank you all!