Social Sciences Student Wins Award at Statewide Geography Conference

Troy Lawson receiving his award from Dr. James Wanket, 
president of the California Geographical Society.

Anthropology and geography major Troy Lawson placed first in the Professional Digitally Displayed Cartographic Award competition at the California Geographical Society's annual meeting in Los Angeles in April. Lawson also won a Student Travel Award.

Lawson received the first-place award for his project “Historical Mapping for the City of San Luis Obispo.” Lawson’s project tracked building trends and identified cultural and historical buildings not currently in the city’s list of Historic and Culturally Contributing Buildings. The digitization of the community environment is an effort to use geography and anthropology to enhance community understanding of San Luis Obispo’s overlooked treasures.

This year’s conference attracted about 300 attendees from a variety of community colleges, the University of California and California State University campuses, and several out-of-state universities.