Despite the common misconception, geography is about more than just interpreting maps and the UCA Geography Club is striving to promote awareness about what geography is about.
“We try to hold events like Geography Awareness week and Geographic Information System (GIS) information sessions, just to spread awareness about what geography’s about, what you can do with it, and for degrees,” club president and junior Kristen Barre said.
While the club’s purpose is to spread awareness about geography, they also like to have fun and give back to the community.
“It’s really just to bring people together, to learn more about different cultures and the environment, and to serve. We do a lot of service and we do a lot of outings. We’ll go on float trips or hike trips,” Barre said.
The Geography Club volunteers annually with Ecofest and will serve as the forefront of a new Ecofest section this year, on Oct.8. The new section will display how geography relates to the environment, Barre said.
As far as activities go, the club’s faculty adviser Dr. Stephen O’Connell said the club has done different activities relating to geography. Activities ranging from GIS with drones and cameras, geocasting and outdoor activities.
“The activities we do are influenced by the group of students we have and their interests,” O’Conell said.
The club meets once a month, on Tuesdays, during x-period in Burdick 201. All students with a 2.0 minimum GPA are eligible to join, according to the Geography Club orgsync account.
“All majors are welcome. We’re mostly geography majors, some of us are environmental science—or we even have some social studies—[and]education majors, who are in there to learn more because geography’s now required as a subject in grade schools,” Barre said.
Image via mmiweb.org
