Gillian Tiley’s interests cover a lot of territory, and she mixed and matched several combinations of majors before settling on political science and geography, with a minor in French. In large part, she managed to craft her own educational experience, combining her interests in policy, geography, language and social advocacy.

She graduated this May with two degrees and a pair of awards in political science: The Departmental Prize in Political Theory and the Philo Sherman Bennet Essay Prize. She was recently accepted into the University of Pennsylvania’s Masters of City and Regional Planning Program.

During her four years at UVM she was an active member of The Lawrence Debate Union (UVM’s debate team); volunteered for the SPEAK Inc. Prison Debate Institute, a non-profit founded by UVM alum Jessica Bullock ’12; and worked as a GIS intern at FM Global last summer.

Tiley used her debate skills to spearhead a public speaking and debate program for children ages 11-13 at Burlington's local Boys and Girls Club. She created lesson plans and activities to provide at-risk youth with advocacy, public speaking, and debate skills.

Perhaps the biggest influence on her academic career were two faculty members Pablo Bose (professor of geography) and Helen Morgan-Parmett (associate professor of theatre and director of the UVM Speech and Debate Program) who hired her as a research assistant.

“I have friends at universities all over the northeast and, compared to their experiences, UVM is unique in the ease in which undergrads can get involved in faculty research,“ Tiley says. ”Really close bonds form between students and faculty here.”

She was still a first-year student when Bose invited her to assist him with a policy report on refugee resettlement. She started out transcribing interviews and managing databases. As his trust in her grew, she ended up writing detailed reports based on her own research. Tiley is credited as a co-author with Bose on “Refugee Resettlement in the Nordic Region: Effects of the 2015 Migrant Crisis and Parallels to the US” published in January.

Tiley created maps and contributed research supporting Morgan-Parmett’s forthcoming book The Sportification of Place (to be published later this year). Along the way she picked skills including software like ArcGIS and SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences).

She thinks the combination of theory and technical skills she picked up at UVM was key to her admission to the University of Pennsylvania.

“That’s something the geography department does really well: combining the human side of research with data and analytics,” she said.

Tiley is interested in going into the urban planning field but she’s keeping her options open.

“Like when I first came to UVM, I don’t think I can know where the degree might lead. For now I’m interested in picking up skills and experience to work as a planner directly in communities. I’m drawn toward projects that involve citizens contributing to planning solutions.”