Pennsylvania Alliance for Geographic Education moves to Shippensburg University

The Pennsylvania Alliance for Geographic Education's recent move to Shippensburg University on July 1, 2009 recognizes the university's commitment to teachers and to education in the state of Pennsylvania.

The program will operate as part of Shippensburg's geography/earth science department under the leadership of Dr. Janet Stuhrenberg Smith, Associate Professor in the Department of Geography-Earth Science. Smith said a number of factors influenced the National Geographic Society's decision to move the Alliance office to SU, including its reputation in education as well as its central location. "The National Geographic Society wanted to see the office hosted by an institution that has a long history focusing on geography education and a long history of outreach to schools," she said.

The goal of the Alliance, a collaborative effort between professional geographers and kindergarten through grade 12 teachers, is to promote and strengthen geography education in the state. Smith said National Geographic initiated contact and was familiar with her work as president of the National Council for Geographic Education in 2008. "They asked if I would be willing to serve as Alliance Coordinator and if the university would be willing to act as host," she said, adding that everyone from her own department through university President Bill Ruud supported the idea. Since its establishment in 1987, the Alliance has been based at various locations including Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg University and, most recently, at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle. "We are thrilled to have the Pennsylvania Geographic Alliance located at Shippensburg University and Dr. Jan Smith at the helm," said Robert E. Dulli, deputy to the chairman at the National Geographic Society. "Jan follows a line of excellent Pennsylvania coordinators. We are confident that the record of success that has been built over the past two decades will continue."

Smith said the Alliance plans to continue holding workshops and conferences focused on supporting geography education in the schools. The Alliance will also develop a 10-year strategic plan to improve geographic literacy in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. A 2006 National Geographic-Roper poll suggested that young people are ill-prepared for what has been described as "an increasingly global future." The study, based on a representative sampling of 510 adults, aged 18 to 24 in the continental United States, suggested that only 37 percent of young Americans can identify Iraq on a map and that about half couldn't locate New York. Smith agreed that many students, grades kindergarten through 12, are not getting the geography education they need, but said that locating places on a map is only part of the discipline. "It's not just about 'where something is,'" she said. "To really understand geography you really need to understand all the interconnections between people and the earth." And geography, she said, is the discipline that brings the earth together, studying things like soil, climate, and physical landscapes but also brings "in the human side--all the cultural, economic, and policital choices people make."

Smith noted that the world is becoming increasingly smaller. "The economy is global; it's no longer local. The clothes we wear, the food we eat are often coming from other countries." And if somebody says they don't care about geography, "It says, 'I don't care about the world we live in,'" she noted. Funding for the Alliance comes from the National Geographic Education Foundation with each state responsible for generating local funds. Smith hopes to have a part-time staff member devoted to the Alliance office after the first of the year. Until then, she may be contacted at Shippensburg University.