Public Information

Ysatis Santiago Venegas received the newly launched award by the Puerto Rican Planning Society for outstanding student Lucilla Fuller de Marvel Outstanding Student Award 2022 on November 2023 during the Planning Week celebrations.

Ysatis Santiago Venegas co-authored the published article The Impact of Short-Term Rentals in Puerto Rico: 2014-2020—Policy Brief. Center for a New Economy (CNE), with Santiago-Bartolomei, R., Lamba-Nieves, D., Figueroa-Grillasca, E.A., Santiago-Venegas, Y.A. (2022).

Adriana Ocasio López participated in the Puerto Rico Winter Institute from the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, 2022-2023

Adriana Ocasio López was selected to participate in the Pre-Doctoral Workshop For Underrepresented Students Of Color And Lgbtqia+ Students from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP),2022

Gabriela Torres López was selected to participate as an Intern with Region 4 within the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at the U.S. Department of Transportation’s 2023 Summer Transportation Internship Program for Diverse Groups (STIPDG)

During Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 students drafted a Strategic Plan for the relouging of a Joint Development Plan for areas surrounding Tren Urbano stations and a Regional Land Use Plan and Regulation for guiding that transit-oriented development as their respective capstone projects for which the Puerto Rico Integrated Transportation Authority served as client.

Students’ capstone projects impact

Summaries of students’ capstone projects have been selected to be published in the Sea Grant Program at the University of Puerto Rico’s Marejada Journal in press. The titles of the projects are the following:

– Climate Change and Displacement of Fishing Communities in Puerto Rico: The Case of  the El Ojo de Agua Fishing Village in Aguadilla. Camila Vélez Agosto, Ishbel Cora Rodríguez, and Samuel González Rodríguez.

– Disadvantaged Coastal Communities, Climate Adaptation, and Policy Effects  contradictory public issues: the case of the Fortuna Playa community in Luquillo, Puerto Rico. Augusto Miranda Acevedo, Elizabeth Castrodad Vélez,  and Sebastián Díaz Barbosa

– Governance of Coastal Erosion from an Equity and Justice Lens: Comparison between Ocean Park, San Juan and Parcelas Suárez in Loíza, Puerto Rico. Génesis Tayché Collazo Ríos, Mario Oscar Font Martín, Nias Hernández Montcourt, Ibia M. Rosa Rosa, and Michael Vázquez Feliciano

Students who worked on an action-planning-oriented capstone project titled “El Huerto/Vivero y Bosque Urbano de Capetillo:  una apuesta a los espacios verdes desde un modelo de planificación (re)imaginado” also designed and actively collaborated with the homecoming of displaced residents activity, focused on fostering community history and collective memory at the Capetillo community in Rio Piedras, San Juan, November 2023.

In October 2024, Adriana Ocasio presented The Density Discourse In Puerto Rico: Towards a Socio-Material Reconceptualization of the Santurce Landscape at the Architecture and Urbanism International Congress, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Students’ national and international presentations

In July 2023, the project The State of the Beaches at PR Post Maria, supported by FEMA and COR3 funds, won one of the Special Achievement Awards given by the company ESRI worldwide for research and implementation work using Geographic Information System titled Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award. GSP’s Coastal Research and Planning Institute of PR (CoRePI) received the award during the 2023 Esri User Conference. Participating students included: Nias Hernández, Samiris Suleiman, Gerardo Rosa, Gabriela Marquez, Michael Vázquez, Brittany Ubiñas, Leslie Martínez, Ishbel Cora, Emanuel Martinez, Sebastian Diaz, Camila Vélez, Mariana Lopez, Alfredo Montañez, David Peña, Roberto Torres, Kathlia Rodriguez, Brian Rodriguez, Ashley Mendez, Alejandra Bonilla, Carla Matos, Ruben Maldonado & Moisés Abdel-Rahman.

Student participation in Colecmar International Conference in Panama City, September 2022- 4 Presentations by six (6) students from GSP and its Coastal Research and Planning Institute of PR (CoRePI):

• Britanny Ubinas, Michael Vazquez, and Gabriela Poster Presentation: Changes in mangrove cover after Hurricane María and their possible implications for coastal management in Guayama PR 2017-2018
• Joseph Perez- Poster titled Social Announcement: Now yes, for the Beach!
• Ricardo Costas and Thomas Flecha: Oral Presentation Evaluation of the Coastal Legal Framework of Puerto Rico: Towards Coastal Planning Adapted to the Effects of Climate Change 

Participation in the International Conference on Science and Technology in the Dominican Republic June 2022- 9 students with seven (7) presentations:

• Oral presentation Post Hurricane Presenters by María Samiris Suleimán and Nias Hernández Montcourt
• Poster presentation Distribution of Mangrove Cover and Changes in Beach Width Post-Hurricane Maria on the Coast of Guayama, Puerto Rico (2017-2018), by Gabriela Martínez, Brittany Ubiñas, and Michael Vazquez
• Poster presentation Winter Swells: Occurrence of Events and Effects on the North Coast of Puerto Rico (1945 -2018), by Sebastián Diaz
• Oral presentation Systematization of the process of dissemination of the findings of the project The State of the Beaches of Puerto Rico Post-Maria, by Leslie Martinez and Ishbel Cora

Achievements of planning students in their internships in community agencies and entities (View document)