Landon Romano, a 1999 graduate of the Department of Geography, established a textbook scholarship fund as a thank you to the department that made a positive difference to his career. The Landon Romano Geography Textbook Scholarship is given out at the beginning of each quarter to selected undergraduate geography students to cover the cost of their introductory Geography textbooks, and four awards were made this quarter, all to students taking Geography 5, “People, Place, and Environment,” taught by Professor Dan Montello.
To qualify, students are asked to submit a brief statement (~100 words or less) about why they are taking a class in Geography and what they hope to gain from it. Winning entries for the fall quarter included comments such as the following:
- My college goal was to major in Math to become a math teacher, but my new found passion has pushed me to pursue a double-major to get a degree in Geography, with an emphasis in GIS. UCSB has one of the most prestigious Geography programs, so I am excited to be able to study under such an amazing program. This scholarship would really help me to get all these texts needed for my classes, which will take a load off my back coming from a low-income family and first generation to go to a 4 year university.
- My knowledge of other countries, besides South and North Korea, is extremely limited, and I dislike the fact that I had no appropriate opportunity to learn more during high school years. Hopefully by taking Geography 5, People/Place/Environment, I can learn and expand my knowledge beyond just Korea and America.
- I am taking geography 5 because when I read the class description, it seemed like a class I would enjoy. I love learning about culture and learning about the reasons why people do what they do. From this class, I hope to learn about not only the locations of countries but also about the relationships between human societies.
- As a pre-communication major who aspires to one day work in global-scale marketing, this class will be very interesting and useful to me. One of the fundamental concepts of communication is the decoding of symbols to receive intended messages. Because many symbols are not universal, it is important to understand not only the culture of those you are communicating with, but also how that community was shaped geographically.
Landon Romano has the distinction of being the youngest alumnus of our Department to ever fund a Geography scholarship. After graduating in 1999, Landon worked with software companies in the Bay area for several years. He then went on to graduate from Baylor with an MBA in 2008 and is now a successful investment fund manager based in South Africa.
Landon’s generosity has had a major impact on our undergraduate students over the years, and all of the UCSB Department of Geography thank him for his generous and continued support. Award winner Nicole Akhrem summed up the impact that Landon has made by making the following comment in her thank you letter to him: “It fuels me to realize there are people who support and encourage our success as students. I hope to one day extend to students the same generosity you have shown me.” Listen up, would-be donors!
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