USC Dornsife Spatial Sciences Institute

It's official: University of Southern California graduate Ella Peterchak (BS Global Geodesign '26) received an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Award from The Fulbright Program! 🙌

She'll spend the 2026-2027 academic year in Taiwan, working with local teachers to plan and lead English lessons — but her ambitions don't stop there.

"After Fulbright, I plan to pursue a career in medicine, with the goal of becoming a pediatrician focused on improving access to care for underserved children. I am excited to see how my Fulbright experience will help me better understand how children's health, education, and environment are connected."

On May 13th, the USC SSI Chapter of Gamma Theta Upsilon - International Geographical Honor Society hosted its 2026 GTU Induction Ceremony. This year, we inducted 49 new members from diverse programs like the B.S. In Geodesign, M.S. in Geographic Information Science & Technology, M.S. in Human Security & Geospatial Intelligence, M.S. in Spatial Data Science, GIS minors, and PhD program. Congratulations to all 🙌

Highlights from the 2026 International Mapathon in April:

🗺️ Students working on both Humanitarian Open Street Map & building crisis maps
🤝 Channeling the positive power of maps with universities worldwide
🏆 SC Mappers winning a Best Overall award for StoryMap "Bridging the Litani" — now perusable here: https://bit.ly/3PmrS3Y

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) | OpenStreetMap

📍 Spotted in Amsterdam:

John Wilson and Stephanie Tran at the 2026 Geospatial World Forum, representing USC SSI in the U.S. Pavilion and exchanging ideas with 1,000+ other geospatial professionals.

To quote Dr. Wilson: "One of the highlights of the week was reconnecting with members of our Academic Advisory Council, including Deirdre Dalpiaz Bishop from the U.S. Census Bureau, Damian Spangrud from Esri, and Greg Scott from the PVBLIC Foundation. Conversations like these reinforce the importance of collaboration across sectors as we continue advancing the future of geospatial science and technology."

You may know Ezra Naranjo as an undergrad studying Human Security & Geospatial Intelligence at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences...

But he's also an award-winning writer! ✍️🥇

His essay "Freedom from Liberty" won first place at the University of Southern California Undergraduate Writers' Conference (UWC) this April.

"In this ambitious piece, Ezra Naranjo traces a path from the abstractions of contemporary AI to its deeper roots in conquest and racial hierarchy. In a voice that's at once commanding and lucid, he situates the disembodied unfreedom of the American present with a longer history of dispossession, crafting a forceful and intellectually expansive argument."
– Competition Judges

Ezra will receive $1,000 in prize money — and unlimited rounds of applause from his SSI fam! 👏👏👏


USC Academic Honors and Fellowships

Meet Esri's 2026 International Student of the Year: Jooyoung Yoo! 🎉

The USC SSI graduate (MS in Spatial Data Science) and current PhD student at Emory University earned this honor at the Esri Innovation Program (EIP) competition.

💡 Award-Winning Research
Yoo's project "Democratizing Nationwide Urban Tree Canopy Mapping — Leveraging GeoAI, ArcGIS, and NAIP Imagery" was developed as part of the University of Southern California Urban Trees Initiative led by Professor John Wilson with support from the Bezos Earth Fund.

🤲 Data for All
Yoo made his project materials publicly available, including his deep learning model, code repository, and datasets. (See article for links!)

⏩ Next Up
Representing the GIS community at Esri's Education Summit and User Conference in San Diego this July.

🔗 More details from USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences: https://bit.ly/4utMQO0