This summer, Darby Relyea, '19, traveled to Belize to take part in an exciting project drone mapping the coastal communities and cayes to uncover the effects of climate change. Relyea also conducted field interviews with residents of the cayes, or islands, to learn about their perceptions of climate change and how they've adapted to the change. She credits the internship with letting her conduct her own field research from scratch and developing her skills in remote sensing and GIS through image processing, digitizing, and data analysis. Perhaps more importantly, "It also exposed me to what social science in GIS might look like in the form of citizen science."

Relyea originally heard about the opportunity when Dr. Tim Hawthorne came to UVM and gave a presentation about the REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) funded by the National Science Foundation. Her paid internship was hosted by the University of Central Florida's Community GIS and Citizen Science REU site in Belize.

Next plans for Relyea include studying abroad in Tunisia and Italy this coming Fall to study religion, politics, and migration, for which she plans to conduct more community-based research- which this summer's experience has given her a firm background in. She hopes to continue on with this summer's work by eventually going back out into the field or engaging in a writing retreat. Relyea encourages students to pursue similar experiences by "speak[ing] with your professors about potential opportunities sooner rather than later. That way you can fully prepare yourself to be a competitive applicant."