November 2015 GeoMentor Spotlight: Justin Farrow - Lighthouse Keeper Beautiful Nation Project and more!
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11-04-2015 12:15 PM
November 2015 GeoMentor Spotlight
Justin Farrow - Lighthouse Keeper Beautiful Nation Project / Webmaster USF Patel College of Global Sustainability / Graduate Assistant Sustainable Tourism USF / Resident Student Innovation Incubator USF Connect / Masters Student Sustainable Tourism/ Entrepreneurship
What was your favorite class in K-12? Geography, of course
How did you first learn about and/or use GIS? As a kid, I spent the majority of my time outside of school working in a reprographics shop owned by my father where surveyors and engineers were in and out all day. Somewhere along the line, I learned a lot about the needs of surveyors in getting their work done. In 2007 I began building Land Surveyors United, a global social support network for professional land surveyors - now the largest in the world. In 2011, a few colleagues and I started the Beautiful Nation Project, an experiential learning project for students in 3rd-10th grades to build deep connections with one another and with earth.
Name one things you love about GIS and/or geography (I know, just one!😞 Learning geography is like trying to eat an elephant- the smart ones take it one bite at a time.
Why did you want to volunteer as a GeoMentor? I believe that kids need more than maps to cling to if they are ambitious about learning what the earth has to teach us. If we do not teach kids to think outside of their local environment, we are chaining them to it. The role of GeoMentor could be a chain breaker!
What kind of GeoMentor volunteer opportunity and experience are you looking for? I would like to volunteer to help make connections between GeoMentors happen in such a way that the strength of a message can become amplified. I would also be interested in helping to facilitate a fluid social environment for papers and resources to be shared. And finally, in class broadcasting from location to anywhere in the world would be a great way to bring the world into the classroom.
If someone asked you why they should learn about GIS and/or geography, how would you respond to them in one sentence? If we do not teach kids to think outside of their local environment, we are chaining them to it.
Email address: justin@beautifulnationproject.org jfarrow@mail.usf.edu
Websites: http://beautifulnationproject.org http://landsurveyorsunited.com http://patel.usf.edu https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinfarrow
Interested in being featured? Go here for more information. We are excited to learn more about you!