The Office of Student Research is proud to feature Ivy Shifflett in this week’s “Scholar Story”.

Ivy Shifflett ’22 graduated from Longwood University with a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and a minor in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Along with her mentor, Dr. Ravi Sankar, Ivy completed a GIS based citizen science project that focused on morphological changes of the coastline in Smith Island, VA. Her project utilized Coastsnap, a citizen science-based app that is paving the way for citizens to be better scientifically educated and have easier access to scientific software/data. Ivy received a Student Travel Grant from the Office of Student Research to enable her to collect data on-site in Smith Island.

Initially Ivy began her research as a class project focused on the use of GIS, but as she became more independent in her study, she decided to become more involved in this research so she could “scientifically support a topic that I am interested in and passionate about which would allow me to not only create something that I am proud of, but that also contributes to the scientific community.”

Ivy shared that participating in research at Longwood allowed her to apply herself in a way that built upon the skills that she was taught throughout college. It also made her more confident entering the work-field after graduation.

Her favorite part of doing research was “being able to present my work to other people and explain why it's important as well as beneficial for the scientific community. It was great to be able to inform people on a topic that they might not be familiar with!”

Participating in independent research has taught Ivy many valuable skills and lessons including “making sure you try and gain perspective on your project from every possible viewpoint.”

Ivy presented her research to the Farmville Town Council during a town council meeting. Together with her faculty mentor, Dr. Sankar, Ivy represented the Longwood GIS program and was able to share information about the importance of GIS. Through this presentation she was able to discuss her work and receive beneficial feedback from members and associates of the town council.

Ivy’s career goals include working along the East Coast studying morphological changes and how anthropogenic climate change can drastically impact wildlife, the environment, and even an entire community. Ivy graduated in December of 2022 and she is in the process of finding a GIS related job in order to gain experience and to hopefully work with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in the future.

Congratulations to Ivy on her successful research!

If you would like to have your research featured in a “Scholar Story”, or if you would like to learn more about getting involved in research at Longwood University, please visit Longwood’s Office of Student Research website http://www.longwood.edu/office-of-student-research/

or contact Amorette Barber, Director of the Office of Student Research (osr@longwood.edu or barberar@longwood.edu)