Matthew Fahrenbruch
Major: Environmental Geography
Mentor: Dr. Brad Rundquist
Expected Graduation Date: December 2010
Organizations and Activities:
• Ronald E. McNair Scholar
• Treasurer: Tau Sigma National Honor Society for Transfer students,
• President: Gamma Theta Upsilon International Honor Society for geography
Honors & Awards:
• Honor Cadet - October 2008 (AFROTC)
• UND President's List Spring 2009, Fall 2009
• UND Dean's List Spring 2009, Fall 2009
• Bernt Lloyd Wills Scholarship Recipient
• UND returning Student Scholarship recipient
Conference:
America View/ASRPS Upper Midwest Conference, Oct 2009
About me: I am currently a senior at the University of North Dakota, My major is in Geography with an environmental emphasis and a minor in Biology. My academic interests, at this point, are fairly broad, but deal mostly with environmental and resource management. I am interested in how recreation can be used to further and strengthen public policy towards conservation, I concept being that if people that do not normally interact with nature are provided that opportunity, how does that experience affect their outlook on land use policy, and resource consumption? Another subject I am interested in is land use conflict in areas that are popular for recreation but also hold value in the form of harvestable commodities (timber, ore, etc). I am also interested in alternative building techniques and how measures taken at the household level can work as part of a bottom-up approach to conservation and management of resources.
My personal interests include fishing, hiking, camping, canoeing and cooking, among other things, but I am also very active in the student community as part of Gamma Theta Upsilon and Tau Sigma honor societies. I am currently the president of Gamma Theta Upsilon and the treasurer of Tau Sigma. As part of these organizations I have had many opportunities to reach out to the community. Some of the events I have been privileged to attend include, Inventorying food at Northlands Rescue Mission, making holiday cards for senior citizens, sand bagging during the spring2009 flooding, and raising money and gifts for the mentally handicapped. Looking to the future I am set to graduate in the fall of 2010 and I am hoping to enter graduate school in the spring. I am also hoping to get experience in the conservation field this summer as part of the Student Conservation Association. Experience that, I hope, will give me a better idea of what the current issues are and allow me to make better use of my time in graduate school.