In addition to providing thorough courses on human/physical geography and GIS, UMW’s Geography department really sets their students up for success by providing opportunities to perform research independently or with faculty. This research serves as an outlet for students to learn how to apply traditional geographic concepts learned in class to solve interesting spatial problems in creative ways. The opportunities I had with the plantations team, where we collected qualitative spatial data by conducting and transcribing interviews, and the experience I had with my sacred spaces project in Dr. Finlayson’s class, where we researched a method to visualize qualitative survey response data in GIS, enhanced my education by developing spatial reasoning and creative problem solving skills.
In my career with the federal government, I often rely on these skills as I work with different types of spatial data – the data and the software might be a little different from what I learned at UMW, but the core geographic principles and methods of spatial problem solving UMW teaches are completely transferable. In truth, it is impossible to teach every GIS tool available that a student may or may not use in their career, but with a strong foundation in geographic concepts and GIS fundamentals, a student can easily transition their base knowledge into more specific and specialized spatial programs as needed. UMW Geography does a very good job teaching these core geographic principles, and research opportunities cement them.
UMW Geography also gave me the opportunity to work for the department as a GIS Lab Aide. I gained experience generating custom maps for professors. As a GIS lab aide, I also would sometimes assist Intro to GIS students on their labs, and this helped me learn to communicate complex GIS concepts in an approachable way.
I completed my GIS certificate capstone at the USGS with Dr. DeWitt, and this was a great experience that involved image interpretation to create a spatial dataset of alluvial diamond mines in Central African Republic in support of an ongoing research initiative. It was a great experience to contribute to a real-world project.
UMW Geography has completely shaped my career, and I am very grateful for all the professors who went above and beyond to enhance their students’ educations.