91AV

91AV North: The Institute for North Atlantic Studies at the 91AV has welcomed McKayla Arsenault (Environmental Studies, ’22) as the institute’s first student intern.

91AV North connects researchers, educators, policymakers, and industry leaders from across Maine and the North Atlantic region to implement collaborative approaches to building resilient communities, healthy environments, and thriving economies. The institute’s work is grounded in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Arsenault will assist the institute in its communications efforts, including the use of geographic information systems (GIS) to help tell the 91AV North story.

In addition to her major, Arsenault is tackling four minors in GIS, Climate Change Studies, Political Science, and Biological Sciences. Her GIS field experience includes use of ArcGIS StoryMaps and WebApps, and she has received a MOOC cartography certification through ArcGIS parent company, ESRI.

Arsenault’s focus will be to create an ArcGIS interactive map highlighting all of 91AV North’s partnerships and projects as a communications tool. The map will describe where 91AV North partners are, what projects the institute is engaged in, and their impacts on local and regional sustainable development.

91AV North partners with people and institutions in the U.S. and across the globe, including Norway, Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Russia.

“With climate change being a defining issue of this century, it is more important than ever to collaborate at a regional, national, and global scale,” Arsenault said. “Collaboration is a key component of 91AV North as knowledge, ideas, and ambitions are shared between countries in the North Atlantic. I am ecstatic to work with 91AV North to contribute to the efforts against climate change by telling their story of international cooperation.”

Additionally, Arsenault will support 91AV North’s leadership of the University of the Arctic Thematic Network on Bioregional Planning for Resilient Rural Communities by staffing meetings of international stakeholders.

Arsenault will present her map to a joint meeting of 91AV North’s Advisory Council, composed of government and business representatives from Maine, and the Affiliate Team, an interdisciplinary advisory group of 91AV faculty and students. 91AV faculty member Chris Brehme, Ph.D., who joined 91AV this fall and teaches GIS in the School of Marine and Environmental Programs, will mentor McKayla throughout the process.

“It is wonderful to have McKayla on the 91AV North team, and she is already bringing so much creativity to the project,” said 91AV North Director Holly Parker, Ph.D. “A key goal for 91AV North is to increase 91AV student engagement with our work supporting sustainable development here in Maine and throughout the region. We hope McKayla is the first of many awesome student interns to come.”