In 2014 riots broke out in the disputed Kashmir region as Indian and Pakistani forces exchanged gunfire. Lincoln sophomore Sahil Salem was there.

A long-time avid traveler, Salem has developed an increasingly unique talent: geography. Hand Salem a map, or simply ask him a question, and he can identify the major cities, regions and cultures of virtually every country, as well as some recent history.

Those abilities separate him from many Americans who struggle geographically. Only 27 percent of eighth-graders scored “proficient” in geography in a recent study of 29,000 eighth-graders by the National Assessment of Education Progress. Three of four U.S. students cannot identify Iran or Israel on a map, according to a 2006 study by National Geographic. On Nov. 18, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson tweeted a U.S. map that misplaced most of the Northeastern states.

“It’s tied to my passion for traveling,” Salem says of his geography virtuosity. Since age six, he has spent about four weeks each summer traveling abroad with his parents. He has been to “30 countries, 35 if you count the airports.”

“I like to experience new cultures and get off the beaten path,” he says. “The world has a wealth of history and beautiful natural landscapes.”

Salem credits his parents for sparking his international enthusiasm. They took him on his first trip abroad at 17 months old.

“We introduced Sahil to travel because we did not want to stop our travels during his childhood,” says his mother, Jan Salem. “We love to travel because of the exposure to new ways of thinking and living life. This makes us question and also appreciate what we have here at home.”

When they saw his interest, they helped him develop it further. “We discussed different countries at home and got books and DVDs for him,” she says. Today, Sahil helps plan the family trips.

The trips have ranged from safaris in Africa to the dangers of a war zone. In Kashmir he saw a heavy military presence and “low-scale rebel attacks and riots.” The soldiers were intimidating, he says, so his family traveled with a security guard. Salem admits he did feel in danger in one town as blasts frequently rang out.

Salem’s favorite trip is a 2013 tour of southern Africa, especially Zimbabwe.

“They have a lot of wildlife there and the people are very friendly,” he says. Though the country is poor, Salem enjoyed visiting many unexplored regions.

In terms of costs of traveling, “we save up a lot,” Salem says. The family always travels over the summer to avoid missing school.

His travels help bring to life the geography he worked hard to learn. He studied hard for  about two years to hone his geographic knowledge, he says, and now, he no longer studies it. “It’s all memorized by now,” he says.

Salem qualified for the finals of the National Geographic geography bee at West Sylvan Middle School in both seventh and eighth grade, taking second in eighth grade. This qualified him for the state bee, where he earned fourth.

Salem was invited to the North-South Foundation’s National Geography Bee in Atlanta, but he was unable to go.

Previous teachers have been impressed with Salem’s talent.

“It amazed me that he had the ability to remember such intricate information about places all around the world,” says Sadie Adams, Salem’s eighth grade social studies teacher at West Sylvan Middle School, now a social studies teacher at Cleveland High School. “He was a wealth of geographical information, often bringing to light obscure information about particular regions.” Adams believes that Salem’s knowledge definitely helped him in her class.

Salem uses geography in history and economics classes at Lincoln, he says. It helps him understand global issues, such as the long-running conflict in Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

“I travelled there and it helped me understand why they are fighting, why the area is valuable and what the outcome of a war there might be,” Salem says.

Still, he considers geography only a hobby. “I probably won’t do a job related to it,” he admits. He also enjoys chess and running, and plans to run track for Lincoln in the spring.

His mother believes that no matter what he ends up doing in life, geography will benefit him. “The world is increasingly interconnected,” she says. “Knowing how to interact and communicate effectively with people from different cultures is a skill that will undoubtedly help Sahil in the future.”

Next summer, the Salem family will again travel to northern Pakistan, this time to Islamabad, the capital, for the first time. Despite terrorist activity in the country, he says the areas he plans to visit are safe and “quite beautiful.” He will also visit Mumbai, India, for the seventh time, on the trip.

The family is still far from checking every country in the world off their list. But by way of books and maps, Salem has visited many more – until he’s able to step foot in the country itself.