Geography research helps undergraduate student connect policy and place

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For Sailor Walter, undergraduate research offered a chance to move beyond classroom discussion and study a complex issue close to home.

Walter, who recently earned a bachelor of science degree in geography from Penn State, is from the Pittsburgh area and spent the spring semester working with Jennifer Baka, associate professor of geography, on research related to the petrochemical industry in Western Pennsylvania. His work focused on how people in and around Beaver County have responded to the Shell Polymers Monaca plant since it was announced in 2012 and later opened in 2022.

Walter said the project gave him a way to examine how communities experience major industrial development differently, especially when questions of economy, environment and public health are all in play.

“One of the main reasons the research is important is because everyone has a voice in a community when a project like this comes to an area,” Walter said. “Being able to accurately represent different people’s opinions is important. When those opinions affect health and livelihood, that feels very much like geography to me.”

His role was one part of Baka’s broader research on petrochemical development in Appalachia. In an article published in 2025 in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Baka described the Monaca facility through the framework of political-industrial ecology, which looks beyond a single plant to the larger network of extraction, infrastructure, regulation and community effects that surround it. Her research argued that the facility is part of a much broader energy buildout that can be difficult for communities to fully see because of how the industry is regulated and how information is made available.

Walter’s work centered on public comments submitted during Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) hearings in 2015 and 2016. He reviewed testimony from local residents, industry representatives, politicians, contractors and academics, then coded those comments in a spreadsheet to identify who was speaking, what issues they raised and whether they supported the plant or expressed concerns.

He said the goal was to better understand how different groups were talking about the same project in very different ways.

“I was trying to understand the varying and clashing discourses around the plant,” Walter said. “It was eye-opening to see how, based on people’s lived experience, they can have completely different opinions on the same topic.”

Those differing perspectives reflect a larger debate in the region. Walter said some residents and officials view the plant as a source of jobs and investment in an area long shaped by industry along the Ohio River. Others point to concerns about pollution and public health.

On April 7, Walter attended a DEP hearing at Penn State Beaver on a proposed new air permit for the plant. After spending weeks reading older testimony, he said hearing from community members in person and seeing the site itself changed how he understood the project.

“I had been coding public comments from years prior, but I didn’t really have a connection to what people were saying,” Walter said. “Then I got to hear people from the local community talk about what was going on. Seeing the magnitude of it and understanding where people were coming from kind of brought the project full circle.”

The research also helped Walter build practical skills. He said he became more comfortable working in spreadsheets, managing a project that did not have a clear endpoint at the start and collaborating with graduate students in a research setting.

“In class, projects are usually pretty well set up for you,” Walter said. “With this, I didn’t really see the end of the project in sight at the beginning of the semester. I had to set goals for myself, stay on track and let the project develop as I worked through it.”

Walter said the experience also sharpened his interest in environmental and energy consulting, especially in the Pittsburgh region where he is from. He said the project reinforced how important those fields will be as communities and industries make decisions about sustainability and energy transition.

“I think we are in a time right now where sustainability and making the right decisions on what to do about energy are essential for this generation and generations coming after us,” Walter said.

After graduating in May, Walter said the project gave him confidence and served as a strong final academic experience.

“I would absolutely tell other students to do undergraduate research,” Walter said. “It was daunting at first, but it gave me more confidence in my abilities because I could watch my work develop over the semester. Overall, it was a great way to end my college experience.”