Olivia Dugger

Growing up, I pictured myself attending college somewhere a plane ride away, so I was shocked when I fell in love with a school 30 minutes down the interstate. I always tell my friends and family that TCU is a unicorn of a school; it has the sports, spirit, and enormous selection of majors, minors, and activities you would find at much larger schools. However, its smaller size fosters a tight-knit community where you're sure to pass by several friends on any given walk to class. And the campus is gorgeous; I fell in love with the commons when I stepped foot in them! Finally, stellar geography programs are few and far between in the United States, and TCU's Department of Geography (as well as the AddRan College of Liberal Arts as a whole) exceeded my expectations. I knew that upon putting down my deposit for TCU, I was committing to an education that would catalyze all my future endeavors.

As a Geography major here at TCU, I leverage my skills in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping and take courses that prepare me for my ultimate life goal: a future traveling abroad and highlighting some of the world’s untold stories through digital storytelling. This future could manifest in many ways - a career as a National Geographic Storyteller, a recipient of a Fulbright scholarship abroad, or, most realistically, post-grad, as a graduate student, researching whatever specific focus I determine along the way. Regardless of where my TCU journey takes me, my work with GIS has nurtured a fascination with the Earth, its occupants, and the ways their interactions can be observed, recorded and analyzed. And more importantly, it has given me a lens to see my community as I’ve never seen it, as well as an opportunity to help change it for the better.