Undergraduate research helps launch geography senior’s next chapter

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — When Isabel Rivera arrived at Penn State, she did not expect undergraduate research to become such a defining part of her college experience. Now, as she prepares to graduate this month, the senior double majoring in geography in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and community, environment and development (CED) in the College of Agricultural Sciences said research helped give her both direction and a clearer sense of the kind of work she hopes to pursue next.

Rivera has worked with Ida Djenontin, assistant professor of geography, since the second semester of her first year. She first connected with Djenontin in class and continued learning from her over several semesters, from GEOG 230 in fall 2022 to GEOG 444 in fall 2025. What began as an early opportunity to assist with research grew into an independent study, co-authorship on a paper using data from Malawi and, this spring, field experience in South Africa.

“I didn’t come to college expecting to do research,” Rivera said. “But after taking Professor Djenontin’s class and talking with her, I felt like this was something I had to do. It opened up a whole field of study I hadn’t really known existed, and I wanted to engage with it as much as possible.”

That sense of discovery is central to how Rivera described geography. Coming from a rural high school where topics such as geography, sustainability, economics and sociology were not emphasized, she said Penn State introduced her to new ways of thinking about people, place and systems. Over time, that perspective helped shape both her academic path and her long-term interests.

Rivera’s current work is tied to Djenontin’s broader research on how communities relate to use, manage, care for and steward landscapes and natural resources that they depend on amid scalar pressures and demands on these landscapes. In simple terms, Rivera said the project asks what local landholders value, what challenges they face and what kinds of restoration or management approaches could support stronger long-term outcomes. In one part of the work, she has analyzed data from Djenontin’s research in Malawi as part of the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded ECO-DRYFOREST project.

Traveling to South Africa, the other project country case, with support from the EMS Gladys Snyder grant, Rivera observed a related stage of field data collection that will be compared across the two locations and landscape restoration initiatives.

“The goal was to learn from cattle ranchers on how they engage with their landscape, especially the grasslands, and then analyze how restoration programs being implemented support successful regeneration and a stronger equitable future,” Rivera said. “It’s really about understanding people’s practices, the resources they have and how they want to respond to the challenges they’re facing at the nexus of climate change, biodiversity loss and nature-dependent community needs.”

She said the work matters because sustainability is not only about environmental conditions, but also about livelihoods, socio-nature relationships, culture and the long-term ability of communities to adapt.

“Some communities are doing their best with the resources they have, but they may not always have access to the information or support that would help them make their practices more sustainable over time,” Rivera said. “Especially with climate change affecting all of us in different ways, those questions really matter.”

For Rivera, one of the most valuable parts of the experience was seeing how research methods take shape outside the classroom. During her trip to South Africa in March, she helped test survey materials, prepare for interviews and support training for the field team that would administer surveys in local languages. She said the experience showed how much care, precision and relationship-building are involved in research conducted with communities.

One lesson that stood out, she said, was the importance of language and shared understanding. In practice, that sometimes meant spending significant time discussing how to define a single word or concept so that everyone involved in the research process understood it the same way. It also meant listening closely to local insight and adjusting methods to make questions clearer, more respectful and more useful.

Rivera said the experience also challenged broader assumptions she had heard about life in Africa. Being in South Africa, she said, reminded her how often unfamiliar places are flattened into stereotypes.

“I learned a lot about how strong some of those misconceptions are,” Rivera said. “People think of places that are different as wild or dangerous, but that’s not really what I experienced. People are still people at the end of the day. We live different lives, of course, but it’s still the human experience.”

That broader way of thinking about place, power and lived experience also shapes Rivera’s plans after graduation. This fall, she will begin graduate studies in international development and social change at Clark University in Massachusetts. There, she said she hopes to study Puerto Rico, focusing on how an economy driven by tourism affects sustainable development, governance and cultural continuity on the island.

For Rivera, the topic is also personal. Her family is from Puerto Rico, but she said assimilation and distance limited her connection to that part of her identity background while growing up. Research, she said, has become one way to build that connection more intentionally while asking larger questions about colonialism, identity and community empowerment.

“I want to focus on how this economy based in tourism has impacted Puerto Rico’s ability to sustainably develop and to continue to have cultural roots tied into governance systems,” Rivera said. “This is also a way for me to develop a closer connection to a culture I didn’t really get to experience as much growing up.”

She said her interest is shaped in part by the tension between different histories within her own family and by a desire to make that complexity useful in ways that extend beyond herself.

“One half of my family comes from settlers, and the other half comes from people who have been colonized over and over again,” Rivera said. “That raised a big question for me: How do I look at these two very different perspectives and make something productive out of that, not just for myself, but in a way that can help empower communities that have a history of being oppressed?”

Rivera credited Djenontin with helping her get to this point.

“Working with her in various capacities in terms of undergrad research opportunities has been one of the most eye-opening experiences I’ve had,” Rivera said. “She’s given me the chance to think about my own interests, ask new questions and really imagine how I would want to lead work of my own someday. She gave me a strong foundation.”

As Rivera reflected on her time at Penn State, she said geography has been central to helping her find both confidence and purpose.

“If I hadn’t decided to major in geography, I would not have found my passion,” Rivera said. “I came in without a clear direction and found it so quickly. The department opened my eyes to so many things, and the faculty have been so willing to help. It’s given me the support system and perspective that started what I hope will be a lifelong academic journey.”