Growing up in Berkeley, CA, the move to Los Angeles was a big change for me, but I quickly found a home in the Geography department.  I have particularly enjoyed studying physical geography with a human interest component.  During my four years, I have had the chance to learn a lot from different extracurricular opportunities including contributing to the Daily Bruin and leading camping trips for members of the UCLA community.  These experiences and coursework as a Geography and Environmental Studies major, have made me passionate about our unique landscapes and how we interact with them over space and time.  My junior year, I had the chance to study abroad in India where I was able to learn in the field and build an entirely new perspective on environments and learning that intensified my passion for geography and the incredible technologies behind it.  When I am not conducting research or juggling coursework, I find myself exploring wild places, whether it’s with a fishing rod in hand or in pursuit of a trail or rock to climb.  If there isn’t time to explore outside the city, I’ll either be in the kitchen working on a new dish, or out looking for a good bite.  UCLA has given me so much more than I could have imagined and I’m looking forward to soaking up the remaining quarters. My undergraduate research concerns trends in vegetation health and distribution in the Yarlung-Tsangpo River Basin in Southern Tibet.  The Tibetan Plateau houses the watersheds that support so much of East and Southeast Asia, one of which is the Tsangpo River which flows through India and Bangladesh.  I will be using satellite imagery to conduct different time series analyses on the region’s vegetation.  More specifically, I will be looking at large scale trends in vegetation as well as local changes in areas of interest such as nature reserves.  Since this region houses Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, and thus the most populated area of the province, human presence is also an important factor.  Through remote sensing, I aim to reveal vegetation trends and create a framework for viewing these landscape trends in relation to population movement and development.  My results will illustrate the state of the region’s vegetation and how it has changed in the past few decades.  The direction of change on a regional as well as local scale will help direct further research on changes happening in such a delicate but vital piece of our global climate and landscape.