Lucia Possehl

Greetings from Burlington, Vermont! Since participating in the LAKES REU program last summer, I have explored new parts of the country and am heading into my senior year of college at the University of Vermont where I study geography and minor in history and environmental studies.

I spent the spring 2019 semester backpacking through the Colorado Plateau (the Four Corners region) with the Wild Rockies Field Institute learning about land use practices, water rights, ecology, and culture of the American Southwest. The course consisted of two months backpacking through desert canyons, canoeing down winding rivers, and several homestays in the Navajo and Hopi Nations. The alternative semester course considered many themes that we researched during my summer in Menomonie including rural culture, conservation perceptions, Indigenous land rights, and place-based identity.

This summer I am living in Burlington, Vermont where I am working as an intern helping to plan the Rural Quadrennial Conference which brings together scholars from the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and Canada to share work regarding rural geography, studies and development. I have also received a grant from the University of Vermont to begin my senior thesis research on mapping the activist and health geographies of opioid harm reduction networks in rural Vermont. My goal with this project is to lift individual voices and stigmatized experiences through a public project that utilizes an accessible, open platform format that works to inform the public, empower individuals, while also sharing the local history of harm reduction in Vermont.

I am extremely grateful to the LAKES REU experience, faculty, and students. I feel that the program has helped me to develop my research skills and has informed how I address complex social and environmental issues.