East Lakes News

Save the Date for the 2024 Joint East Lakes-West Lakes meeting to be held October 17-19, 2024 at Western Michigan University! More information available here


The 2023 East Lakes Conference was a success! Thank you to the University of Toledo, Lakeland Community College, and Owens Community College for collaborating to organize a wonderful conference for our region.

Congratulations to the winners of the poster and paper competitions (below).

Undergraduate Poster
1st place: Ana Murray
2nd place: Jacob Foll
3rd place: Addison Sorenson

Graduate Poster
1st place: Juthi Mitra
2nd place: Joshua Pepper
3rd place: Hannah Dahlke

Undergraduate Paper
1st place: Sandra Johnson
2nd place: Jacob Davinson

Master’s Paper
1st place: Christine Calleja
2nd place: Lingyu Ouyang
3rd place: Santiago Escobar

Doctoral Paper
1st place: James Kaemmerer
2nd place (tie): Esther Amoako and Xin Gu


Kudos to the East Lakes Geobowl Team for competing in the National Geography Bowl Competition at AAG in Denver. The team took fourth place out of six teams, but had a great time answering geography trivia questions. Team members were: Amanda Willhite (Saginaw Valley State University), Joseph Walker (Western Michigan University), John Layman (Ohio State), Alberto Villarreal (Michigan State University), Jacob Berghaus (University of Cincinnati), Md Saiful Alam (University of Toledo).

In addition, team member Jacob Berghaus (University of Cincinnati) received the award for the top highest individual score in the competition, and team member Alberto Villarreal (Michigan State University) scored 14th in the individual competition.


Congratulations to Sinclair Community CollegeGeography/Geospatial Technology Department, winner of the 2023 AAG Program Excellence Award!

Honorable Mention: Grand Rapids Community College – Geography Program

Honorable Mention: Muskegon Community College – Geography Program


The 2022 annual meeting of the East Lakes Division of the American Association of Geographers hosted by Muskegon Community College, October 27-28, 2022, was a success!

Congratulations to the winners of the student presentations and posters:

Undergraduate Posters:
First place: Colton Bragg
Second place (tie): Haley Mueller and Evan Hodson
Third place (tie): Benjamin Honeyford and Abigail Lanham

Graduate Posters:
First place: Kingsley Kanjin
Second place (tie): Eric Carballido and Kimberly Panozzo
Third place: Seth Rainey

Undergraduate Presentations:
First place: Connor O’Loughlin
Second place: Pamela Madaha

Masters Presentations:
First place: Santiago Escobar Piedrahita
Second place: Md. Tuhin Chowdhury
Third place: Nusrat Jahan Tabassum

Doctoral Presentations:
First place: Ruijia Hu
Second place: Md. Ishfaq Ur Rahman
Third place (tie): Sarah Goodrich and Yue Lin