BBHS Graduate Samantha Roth Lands Competitive Internship, Joins Lecture Circuit

The 2005 Big Bear High School valedictorian is moving up in the world. Samantha Roth is currently enrolled in the Graduate Studies Program for Geography at Cal State Long Beach, with an emphasis in the relationships between nature and society. Last week she went to Washington, D.C. to deliver a PowerPoint presentation at the National Convention of the American Association of Geographers. Her presentation will have meaning for residents of our resort town; it was called “Developing Local Identity in Tourist Places: A Look at the Permanent Residents of Mammoth Lakes, California.” While at the conference a professor asked her to present at an Orange Coast College May 7th, which will be followed by another presentation at her own university. This summer Samantha will go back to D.C. for an internship with the prestigious National Geographic Society. This is one of the most competitive internships in the field of Geography. Geography focuses on the spatial organization of human and physical landscapes, the interactions between human society and the physical environment, as well as on the meanings that people bring to their place in the world.