Hey guys, my name is Mike Tran! I’m originally from Hastings, Nebraska. I came to CU-Boulder after being in the Marines for a couple of years. Currently, I am a senior double-majoring in Geography and International Affairs and also pursuing a minor in Arabic.
I was drawn to EDSC since I want to gain more experience in coding and programming and apply it to my main interest of Geography (especially within the intersection of climate change and GIS), want to get to work on a research project that would help me gain more research experience, potentially help me narrow my interests in grad school, and also since I really have grown to appreciate a sense of community since getting here to CU and that seemed to be something EDSC really emphasized!
Right now I’m really thinking about continuing my education by pursuing grad school, potentially at CU. Very broadly, I’m really interested in the field of climate change and using GIS/remote sensing as a means of observing and visualizing data about climate change and making it as accessible as possible to people.
My hobbies include weightlifting, running, hiking, and baking (some of my favorite things to bake are oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies, lemon bars, and glazed apple crumble muffins)
Some interesting things about me:
- The past two years I have been in the top 0.5% of Taylor Swift listeners
- I did a cross-country road trip around the U.S. in fall of 2019 starting from Florida to Maryland to Nebraska to Washington, down south to California, through the West, and back to Nebraska
- I’ve gotten to move around the U.S. a bit so far in my life, chronologically from Nebraska, California, Texas, Georgia, and now Colorado
- I won the Geography Bee in 4th, 6th, and 7th grade and got second place in 5th and 8th