MCC Geography Majors Awarded Two of Five National GTU Scholarships

Stephanie Carr

Stephanie Carr

Two recent Muskegon Community College students, Stephanie Carr and Leeanna Harris, were awarded two of the five 2020 national scholarships offered by Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU), the international geographical honorary society.

They are the first-ever community college recipients of the prestigious awards.

Carr received the 2020 Gamma Theta Upsilon Rechlin Scholarship and Harris was awarded the 2020 Gamma Theta Upsilon Richason Scholarship. This past year, Muskegon Community College was granted a Gamma Tau Upsilon chapter, Nu Nu. Carr served as the chapter president and Harris as vice president.

Leeanna Harris

Leeanna Harris

“Each year, Gamma Theta Upsilon International Geography Honorary Society recognizes five GTU members who have demonstrated academic and service excellence to their departments, their GTU chapter, their community, and geography as a whole,” noted Dr. Harry J. Wilson of Ohio Northern University, who serves as the GTU Scholarship Chair. “Four of these scholarships are awarded to undergraduate students and one is awarded to a continuing graduate student.”

“The task of selecting scholarship recipients is always challenging, and this year the process was especially difficult.  We had a large pool of applicants, each of whom are exceptional geography students with bright futures ahead of them.”

“What a grand accomplishment for our students,” said MCC Geography Instructor Diana Casey, who advises the college’s Gamma Theta Upsilon chapter. “These young ladies have been exceptional leaders at Muskegon Community College.”

A 2015 graduate of North Muskegon High School, Carr was competitively selected and participated this summer in an interactive online learning opportunity offered by the NASA Community College Aerospace Scholar program. In 2020, she was selected to represent the East Lakes Division of the American Association of Geographers in the annual World GeoBowl. She worked as a Geography tutor and as a technology assistant at Muskegon’s Hackley Public Library. Carr has transferred to Western Michigan University to major in Geography, Biology, and Statistics.

A Muskegon, MI, native, Harris graduated from Mona Shores High School in 2018. While at MCC, she was a Geography tutor and worked in a local daycare. She has conducted undergraduate research on Community-Supported Agriculture since 2019. She won third place in the undergraduate poster competition on the topic at the East Lakes Division of the American Association of Geographers meeting last October. Harris transferred to Michigan State University and is majoring in Urban and Region Planning, a sub-discipline of Geography.