USC Dornsife Spatial Sciences Institute

📸 Kevin Sohn with his grand prize-winning poster "Food Base L.A. Dashboard Urban Agriculture," presented at the Southern California Association of Governments (S**G) Regional Council meeting earlier this month!

About the Poster 🗺️
Dives into Kevin's project research this year, creating layers for the Dashboard's new Urban Ag section, and his scripting for overall statistics updates.

About Kevin 👋
Kevin is a Wilson Map Lab researcher + junior geodesign major at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences SSI, looking forward to his upcoming summer internship with SFO — aka, the Airport GIS team that presented at last year's Esri UC.

📍 Spotted in Denver:

John Wilson at the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation - USGIF's GEOINT Symposium!

During a panel pictured here and moderated by Treva Smith (Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence College at National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency), USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences SSI's Dr. Wilson discussed how we must adapt to meet rapidly evolving mission needs.

His fellow participants included academic leaders like Jack Cothran from the University of Arkansas, Robert Griffin from The University of Alabama in Huntsville, and Ayman Habib from Purdue University.

"I appreciated the opportunity to exchange ideas with colleagues who are deeply committed to preparing the next generation of geospatial intelligence professionals. Conversations like these reaffirm that our human security and geospatial intelligence programs are helping shape workforce development at a critical moment in an increasingly complex and uncertain world."

More behind-the-scenes details:
🔗 https://bit.ly/4dvhq2n

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