In the World Geography Bowl competition held recently in Denver, Colorado, UMW geography students Kaleb Dunlap and Ricky Muñoz displayed a solid strategy: Don’t buzz in on a question till you’re sure what’s being asked.
Long, roundabout questions threw some contestants for a loop, but Dunlap and Muñoz dodged those pitfalls en route to an excellent performance at the bowl, held during the American Association of Geographers (AAG) annual meeting March 23-27.
The UMW students teamed up with other undergraduates and graduate students from the AAG’s Southeast Division (SEDAAG) to place second overall in the geography trivia bowl competition. They also performed notably in the individual rankings of the 40-plus participants. Muñoz, a senior double major in geography and history from Centreville, placed sixth, and Dunlap, a junior geography major from Virginia Beach, tied for eighth.
“This is extremely respectable for two undergraduate students in the national competition,” noted Professor of Geography Dawn Bowen. In fact, among undergraduates, Muñoz placed second and Dunlap third.
Muñoz and Dunlap were invited to the AAG meeting and bowl competition based on their performances in the SEDAAG bowl in November. At the national meeting, they teamed with others from the Southeast Division to beat every regional competitor at least once in the round-robin tournament.
But the home team, Great Plains/Rocky Mountain Division, pulled ahead in the final round – and it was just luck that at least one question pertained to specific neighborhoods in Denver.
“We came close to winning but suffered a sad defeat,” Dunlap said with a laugh. “But we had a good time.”
And fun, as much as anything, was the point of the friendly competition – a way for undergraduate and grad students from around the country to be front and center at AAG meeting and display their geography chops before their peers, professors and professional counterparts. By attending the AAG annual meeting, they also got to take in presentations about topics in geography, explore the exhibit hall, walk around the state Capitol area, and do some networking.
While neither Muñoz nor Dunlap is immediately in the job market, both said they valued the chance to meet professional geographers and make connections for their futures.
Muñoz plans to spend one additional semester at UMW to complete his double major, with graduate study a possibility sometime in the future. Dunlap has a summer internship lined up with the economic development agency in his hometown of Virginia Beach and has applied for an accelerated UMW program through which he would earn a Master of Science in Geospatial Analysis.
Both hope to attend the next SEDAAG conference and regional bowl next fall. The SEDAAG bowl has long been a place for UMW students to shine; they’ve won it six times, in 1991, 2009, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2022.
Whoever prevails at the SEDAAG bowl to move on to the national competition, the reward will be a nice one – the next AAG national meeting, April 16-20, 2024, will be held in Honolulu, Hawaii.
