Geography Program
You start with a map—one of humanity’s oldest tools and one of today’s most powerful technologies. Digital maps shape how the world moves, plans, and responds. In geography, you learn to read, interpret, and create these maps to uncover patterns, relationships, and stories hidden in plain sight. You begin to see the world spatially, understanding how location influences everything from climate and culture to health, economics, and global change.
While historians study how life changes over time, you study how life varies across space. You explore Earth’s natural and human landscapes, the distribution of resources, and the conditions that shape human survival. You take an integrative approach to environmental challenges, examining cultural, economic, and social forces to imagine sustainable, long‑term solutions.
As a geographer, you learn to track what’s happening in the world around you—the spread of disease, the growth of cities, the retreat of icecaps, shifting food systems, and the movement of storms. Every human or natural phenomenon leaves a pattern on the map, and geography gives you the tools to understand it.
If you’re drawn to new places, care about the environment, or love the idea of making maps that matter, geography becomes your academic home. You step into the role of a modern‑day explorer, equipped with technologies that help you make sense of a rapidly changing planet.
Maps, digital mapping, and the power of GIS are central to your experience in this program. You study how maps are created, how they communicate information, and how they influence decisions. Then you take the next step by building digital maps that analyze complex data and reveal insights with real‑world impact.
You work with spatial data, satellite imagery, GPS, geospatial apps, drones, and 3D modeling to create detailed visualizations used in conservation, engineering, land‑use planning, and more. These tools give you a spatial perspective that helps you think creatively and solve problems with data—a perspective that’s increasingly essential across today’s industries.
Geography careers are expanding and in-demand
Geography careers are expanding quickly, especially as geographic information science (GIS) and digital mapping drive decision‑making in fields like city planning, public health, environmental consulting, and emergency management. With strong geospatial skills, you can step into roles such as GIS analyst, environmental consultant, urban planner, remote sensing specialist, or natural resources technician. Whether you’re interested in sustainability, disaster response, conservation, or global development, geography gives you a flexible, future‑ready skill set that keeps opening doors in a world that’s becoming more data‑driven.
Undergraduate
Minor in Geography
If you’re someone who likes to understand how the world fits together, people, places, and environments shape one another, a minor in geography gives you a new way to see it all. Geography teaches you to look at the world through a spatial lens, exploring why things happen where they do and how natural and human features vary from place to place. You’ll dig into themes like how ideas spread, why location matters in human interaction, and how physical and cultural forces come together to create the landscapes we live in. It’s a field that sits at the crossroads of the social and natural sciences, giving you a truly integrated way to study human–environment relationships.
What makes a geography minor especially valuable is how easily it strengthens other majors. Whether you’re studying environmental science, political science, public health, business, anthropology, sustainability, or even fields like journalism or informatics, geography adds depth to your understanding of the world. You gain skills that translate into environmental management, urban planning, conservation, recreation and tourism, transportation, international affairs, and many roles that don’t explicitly have “geographer” in the title. No matter your major, a geography minor gives you a versatile, spatial perspective that employers value in a world increasingly shaped by data, place, and global change.
Undergraduate Certificate in Geographic Information Science
If you’re curious about how maps, data, and technology come together to explain the world, this certificate gives you the tools to get started. Over the last couple of decades, the explosion of digital mapping, satellite imagery, and location‑based data has transformed how we understand everything from city planning to public health. That growth created an entire field—geographic information science—and you get to step right into the center of it. You’ll work with GIS, remote sensing, GPS, and other spatial technologies, learning how they connect and how they’re used to solve real problems. Even though the roots of this field are in geography, you’ll see its impact everywhere: engineering, business, environmental science, medicine, social research, and more.
You build a strong foundation in how spatial data works and how to use it responsibly. You learn to ask geographic questions, analyze information, and create clear, meaningful maps. You practice collecting and evaluating geospatial data, applying ethical standards throughout. Along the way, you gain a deeper appreciation for the many kinds of people and places—from your own community to the global scale—and you develop the collaborative skills needed to contribute to local and regional projects. With this certificate, you’ll be ready to bring geospatial thinking into whatever field you choose.
Graduate
Certificate in Geographic Information Science
If you want to advance your career with powerful, in‑demand geospatial skills, the Graduate Certificate in Geographic Information Science (GIS) gives you the training employers look for. You learn how to work with spatial data in ways that help organizations make smarter decisions—whether you’re in urban planning, environmental science, public health, business analytics, or any field that relies on mapping and location‑based insight.
In this program, you learn how to visualize and analyze the world through geospatial science. You explore how GIS technologies are used to solve real problems, from tracking environmental change to planning sustainable development. You build a strong foundation in the concepts and methods that define modern GIS, and you gain hands‑on experience with the same tools professionals rely on every day. You learn how to create, manage, analyze, and present spatial information, and you develop the ability to interpret complex spatial problems and turn them into meaningful, real‑world solutions.
Your curriculum blends essential training with opportunities to tailor your studies to your goals. You begin with core coursework in remote sensing, air photo interpretation, and geographic information systems, then choose electives that let you deepen your expertise in areas like cartography, advanced remote sensing, spatial statistics, or specialized GIS applications. This combination prepares you to work effectively with satellite imagery, vector graphics, historical maps, and other forms of spatial data that drive today’s geospatial work.
As industries increasingly rely on geospatial information—from agriculture and engineering to disaster recovery, health, social science, and the digital humanities—you gain a competitive edge by learning to “think spatially” and apply both quantitative and qualitative methods. With advanced GIS skills, you open doors to opportunities in business, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and academia. The job market is especially strong for professionals who can bring GIS expertise to their work, and this certificate helps you step into that space with the technical and analytical abilities employers value.
More information
For questions about any of these academic offerings, contact the Geography chair, Rudy Banerjee.
