news

2nd Annual Southeast Student Planning Conference a Success

Primary tabs

Professional planners and planning academics joined students for the 2nd Annual Southeast Planning Students Conference in Spartanburg, South Carolina from October 16-18th. The South Carolina chapter of the American Planning Association (APA) hosted the student-led conference during their SCAPA Fall 2013 Conference, with student breakout sessions running concurrently with the SCAPA speakers and training workshops. Roughly 30 students within the 160 registrants for the SCAPA conference exchanged research and best practices particular to the southeast region through sessions titled "Investigations into Transit," "Social Equity Challenges in the 21st Century," "Preserving, Revitalizing, and Modernizing," and "Urban Art - The City as a Canvas," in addition to a student walking tour of downtown Spartanburg. 

Carly Queen, a graduate planning student at Georgia Tech and co-organizer of the student conference, observed that the two conferences were well integrated: "The student conference operated as a separate track within the SCAPA conference allowing conference participants the ability to jump between SCAPA sessions and student-led sessions." Queen also noted that the Southeast Planning Students Conference's silent auction benefitted from the additional conference participants. "Books and signed baseballs were auctioned to raise money for each APA chapters. The Georgia Tech items raised $70 for student travel."

Perhaps the greatest benefit of the conference came from the opportunity for students to network with professionals and to receive feedback on their papers. Georgia Tech was represented by graduate planning students Taylor Tyger, Tharunya Balan, and Marion Phillips in the breakout student sessions. In addition, Dr. Bruce Stiftel, chair of Georgia Tech's School of City and Regional Planning, moderated one of the student sessions. "It is important to share the work we are doing at Tech, and I really enjoyed learning about the research my peers are conducting at other institutions," said Tyger who presented on pedestrian fatalities near transit stops. "The Southeast Planning Conference is one of the best opportunities for students in the southeast to meet students and alumni from other programs and develop professional relationships."

Status

  • Workflow Status:Published
  • Created By:Kyle James
  • Created:11/03/2013
  • Modified By:Fletcher Moore
  • Modified:10/07/2016

Categories

  • No categories were selected.