Hopefully by Friday of Geography Awareness Week, you’ve
realized the value of geography. It’s
current, it’s everywhere, and it underlies most of what you do – even if it doesn’t
have the word ‘geography’ in it!
The last themed-day of our Geography Awareness Week
celebration is “Careers.” We want to
draw your attention to geography as a set of skills, as an academic discipline,
and as a way to expand your future career options and strengthen your current
career competencies through understanding global connections. Most importantly, we want to remind you that
geographers are all around you (we’re sneaky), and that geography is quickly
becoming one of the hottest topics in a globally interdependent world.
The American Association of Geographers (AAG) has a
list of their members working in different capacities around the country –and not
just as geography professors. Follow this
link, and see the different companies that notable AAG members work for. You
can also check out this list
of jobs that use geography, or use AAG’s
Career Guide to help plan your next step in the professional world.
Not a ‘professional’ yet?
Check out the AP
Human Geography class for high school students, or locate universities or
colleges in the United
States and abroad
that offer degrees in Geography. You can
see what the buzz
is about in the cartographic, or “map-making” world, and learn why GIS consistently tops
headlines.
Next, have some fun by taking the last of our
geo-tours. The “Geography on the Job” geo-tour
flies you around the planet to meet different professionals, revealing how they
use geography in fields you might not expect.
Finally, read interviews from young activists in international careers with
the Asia Society.
Keep checking back today for our guest bloggers! First, Toni
Schneider from the National Geographic Society will tell us about her
experience in the Peace Corps. Then, acclaimed About.com Geography Guide Matt
Rosenberg will share musings on everything from his hopes for the discipline of
geography, to the most frequently asked questions on his website. And finally,
we’ll conclude the week with a “letter to Obama” from our own Danny Edelson,
Vice President of Education for National Geographic.
Don’t forget that Geography Awareness Week continues through
Saturday. So get outside this weekend and celebrate! I for one will be hiking
and paying a visit to the newly reopened Smithsonian Museum of American History here in Washington, D.C.—that
is before they start charging admission
for the historically free national treasure. But I guess that’s what happens in
the midst of a global economic downturn: It’s geography, people!