UNH Geography Club wins second place in regional geography competition

Thursday, December 3, 2020
students in MUB competing in GeoBowl

Michael Harris ‘22, Seth Chevalier ‘23, Abbey Coe ‘22 and Evan Proulx ’23 competing in the virtual GeoBowl.

UNH’s Geography Club won second place for the second consecutive year in the annual New England-St. Lawrence Valley Geographical Society (NESTVAL) GeoBowl, hosted virtually by Salem State University in November 2020. The team competed against five other universities across New England and Quebec.

The UNH team members are geography majors Seth Chevalier ’23, Abbey Coe ’22, Michael Harris ’22 and Holden Lee ’24; business major Patrick Heffernan ’21; accounting major Jacqui Krause ’22; and civil engineering major Evan Proulx ’23.

The UNH team met, socially distanced, in the Memorial Union Building, with students joining in on Zoom from their own devices. Mary Stampone, associate professor of geography, and fellow students acted as coaches and scorekeepers.

Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, UNH's Geography Club, open to majors and non-majors alike, has held several physically distanced meetings and events this semester under the leadership of President Abbey Coe, including multiple hikes, a movie night and a takeout food tour.

NESTVAL is a regional division of the Association of American Geographers. The Geography Bowl is a geography trivia competition for students, which starts with a round-robin tournament culminating in a head-to-head match between the final two teams. UNH students have taken part in this competition for 13 years, placing second four times and winning twice.