Creating a map with purr-pose
For biology major Lauren Bostwick ’26, M.S./GIS ’27, a desire to help stray animals combined with her abilities in technology led her to create a powerful tool of compassion.
Bostwick became excited by new possibilities after taking Intro to GIS during her sophomore year. She wanted to explore projects that incorporated her new skill, and found her opportunity in Puerto Rico.
From June through August 2024, Bostwick apprenticed at the University of Puerto Rico in the capital city of San Juan, conducting research on seagrass genomes. The project involved bioinformatics, which, she says, is like computer coding for analyzing genomes.
During downtime, Bostwick would play with the city’s stray cats, of which there were many. San Juan’s feline overpopulation is well-documented by agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, and with a first-hand view of the issue, Bostwick began thinking about ways to improve the animals’ health. She began developing Kitty Konnect, a pilot program that employs GIS technology to address the feral cat population in Puerto Rico.
Kitty Konnect uses tools like Esri’s Survey123 that allow the community to track, locate, and care for the strays. Community members can input a location when they find a cat, and that data is used to help local rescue and animal advocacy organizations arrange care for the animals.
“Residents and local organizations often step up and care for stray cats,” says Bostwick. “The shelters sometimes need help locating the cats for rescuing, adoption, neutering or treating health conditions.”
Bostwick received funding to broaden her research through the Steinbrecher Fellowship Program, which supports Clark undergraduates who are pursuing original ideas, creative research, or enrichment projects.
Bostwick has been working on the cat project since March 2025 with the help of Sustainability and Social Justice Professor Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, who became Bostwick’s sponsor when the student took the professor’s Advanced Vector GIS course . Geography Associate Professor Florencia Sangermano is helping Bostwick with continuous data collection and writing her thesis, and Bostwick’s biology professors have also provided mentorship and support throughout the research process.
Kitty Konnect allows Bostwick to explore topics in biology through a geography lens, for example, how disease from an infection like toxoplasmosis may spread from colony to colony. Bostwick hopes to finish the Puerto Rico project by the end of the spring 2026 semester.
“I’m able to take some of my research and apply it to different classes,” she says. “In my advanced GIS class, my friend and I are working on making a model to predict where cats could be throughout the city based on certain environmental factors such as access to food.”
Bostwick’s family encouraged her love of science and the natural world from a young age — hiking in the Vermont woods and spending ample time outdoors. Her mother studied botany and always encouraged Lauren to connect with nature. An interest in geography developed when Bostwick won her school’s National Geographic Bee in seventh grade.
During her college search, she found Clark to be the perfect fit. Outside of the classroom and lab, Bostwick is a member of the Shenanigans comedy troupe and works as an academic tutor at the Boys and Girls Club.
Now studying in the 4+1 Accelerated Master’s Degree program in GIS, Bostwick is applying for a variety of internships in the field. “Hopefully I can take all that I’ve learned in classes and put it into something useful,” she says.
