Blogging changed the world. Blogging changed my life. I'm sure it has changed yours too. Your platform gives a voice to diverse people around the globe. You create the space for unexpected connections and enable small businesses to succeed.

I reviewed your UI/UX and summed it up in 3 sections: The Good, The Meh and the Meh-er. Yes, I know, meh-er isn't a word. Neither is dumber, and it's in a movie title.

Ice cream sundae buffet! Yum! Who doesn't like unlimited toppings? Hot fudge, caramel sauce, sprinkles and gummy worms are delicious on their own.

Yippee!! You did it. You got your GIS degree. Now what? How do you transition from being a student to having a “real” job?

You didn’t get picked. You got a pink slip. Rejection hurts & kills your confidence. How do you get your mojo back?

Ever wonder how to make your resume relevant for different job applications? Want to know about cool GIS resume tools?

Want to move into GIS from another industry? Learn how to leverage your previous experience and pivot your career path.

The internet is saturated with best practices to become a digital nomad and start your own business. Do a quick search and you’ll find workshops, retreats, books, blogs, online classes and Facebook groups galore.

Want to work on cutting-edge technology, collaborate with cool people, make lots of moolah, travel to interesting places, solve important problems and make an actual impact?

This may sound a bit crazy…but today I woke up and was sure of one thing — I don’t want a traditional “home” anymore. I’ve always dreamt of being free like the wind, able to fly to where ever seems most interesting to me at the drop of a hat.

Perched over a hand-carved teak table, I sip a sort-of-cold Bintang beer (a local favorite in the flavor family of Coors Light) and munch on a “hamburger” (literally made of deep friend pieces of ham, which the waitress assures me is beef).

Colorful flip flops are neatly stacked on the shoe racks at the top of the jagged, winding stairs leading to the entrance of a massive bamboo treehouse. Bands of wild monkeys play on the roof and swing from the electric wires draped outside.

Geospatial professional development and job hunting can be scary...kind of like jumping out of a plane. That's why I did it tandem - with an expert by my side. The same is true for your geo-journey.

Welcome to Part 1 of our National Geography Awareness Week Story Series in partnership with the National Geographic Society! We're celebrating this special week by highlighting five innovative young professionals and students who are blazing their own paths in geography.

Meet Dr. Anthony Robinson, who started managing Penn State's Online Geospatial Programs at age 30. He continues to blaze a path in uncharted territory by leading one of the first Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in Geography.

OK, I admit it...the Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting wasn't really in Hollywood. But it sure was close...just right down the street in downtown Los Angeles. Being so close to Tinseltown inspired me to create my own movie about the Geo Community.

What does it mean to be a leader in the GIS profession? It depends on who you ask. There are many ways to lead.

When it comes to a portfolio or describing GIS skills on a resume, how much weight can I give class projects? Can I put maps I've created in the portfolio even though they were created for educational purposes?

The hot Orlando sun shone through the floor-to-ceiling windows, making me squint as I walked down the hallway of the Hilton. I’d been to my fair share of conferences but was nervous because I’d never attended a URISA event before.

Scenario: Your organization is beginning a new conservation project on the border of Montana and Wyoming. The project management team needs to understand the natural features of the site to plan field data collection efforts. Your job is to locate relevant GIS datasets, communicate their opportunities and limitations, and share them with the team in a user-friendly format.

Scenario: You are part of a research team tasked with creating a restoration plan for a degraded wetland complex. You need to understand how the vegetation within the wetland has historically responded to changes in water levels. This information will enable you to predict the health of the wetland in future scenarios, including anticipated hydrological changes due to climate change.

Last week, we talked about why wetlands are important, threats to wetlands such as human activities and invasive species, and wetland protection and restoration programs. This week, we will discuss how wetlands function. Hydraulic conditions are very important in wetland ecosystems because they influence their physical and chemical properties.

Scenario: You have been hired by a local landowner to calculate the carbon sequestration potential of a small forested area in southeastern Michigan. You know it is possible to estimate carbon values using measurements of tree height and diameter. After an initial site visit to the property, you determine it will be too costly and time consuming to measure every single tree on the property. Given these limitations, you decide to use a representative sample to estimate values for the entire forest.

Land use change is a common issue that has a wide range of environmental implications. As pointed out in the land use change article released by the European Commission (see Required Readings), land use and land cover will be an important driver of climate change in the next century. Some reasons for this are the increase in impervious surfaces and the reduction of agricultural and forested areas, which reduce the uptake of CO2 by plants.

Tropical rainforests are extremely valuable in terms of the ecological services they provide, such as biodiversity and carbon sequestration. Although they cover only 6% of the earth's surface, they provide habitat for over half of the plants and animals in the world. Many of these plants and animals are threatened or endangered species. Rainforests are also highly prized for their commercial hardwood trees.

You have been hired by the Lake Raystown Watershed Council to identify potential sludge disposal sites within a watershed in south-central Pennsylvania. You must take into account the vulnerability of groundwater contamination, distance from surface water, and area of each potential site. To accomplish this task, you will use ArcGIS Spatial Analyst tools to recode and overlay maps depicting important factors that affect inherent vulnerability.

Scenario: You are a GIS Manager for a non-profit environmental organization where you lead a small team of GIS Analysts. A pre-proposal your organization submitted for a funding opportunity made it past the first round of review. You received an invitation to present your proposal to a panel of reviewers, who will choose between your organization and a pool of competitors for the project award.