Hello
and welcome to the University of
Tennessee my name is Dr. Hannah Herrero and i'm a professor in the Department of
Geography.
I'm here today in the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park just outside of
Knoxville.
Geology rocks but geography is where
it's at.
Simply put, geography is the study of
space and place of any phenomenon that
you can think of.
That's what i love most about geography.
You can study anything from a geographic perspective.
Name a topic and there's a geographer
who's studying it. Whether you're
interested in mountains or rivers
animals or vegetation technology or
medicine, culture, and race or feminism and marxism
or you're just interested in knowing all
of those things about a particular
region of the world.
then there's a place for you at UTK
Geography.
Okay, so you got a degree in Geography
but can you get a job?
Yes! One of the hottest fields in
geography the last decade is that of geographic
information science or GIS.
This is a large umbrella that covers
thinking about
geospatial technology and the ways that
we can recognize
patterns and relationships in the world
via different types of data management
analysis and mapping. This is the broad
umbrella that i also fall in
here at the University of Tennessee. We
have a very unique relationship with the
Oak Ridge National Laboratory where
world-class geographic research occurs
daily
and our students have a more direct line
to apply to work with faculty there.
There are thousands of highly paid jobs
that go
unfilled in the united states each year
in GIS because the demand is so high and
the ready workforce is relatively low. We have a
lot of alumni connections with GIS
across different industries, businesses,
government, and NGOs. And all of those sectors also
highly rely on all kinds of different
geographers. Check out more job
information at aag.org.
As I mentioned, I fall under GIS and in
particular I
study a sub discipline called remote
sensing which focuses on earth from
above observations. So basically, I use
satellite imagery, similar to what you
may have previously used on google earth,
to analyze different vegetation change
over time
and understand different management
decisions impacts on the environment
through human environment interactions.
I study in particular savannah sciences
or grasslands across
protected areas such as national parks
of southern africa.
However, this work is broadly applicable.
One of the things i'm really passionate
about is field work and geography is a
great place for that.
When I was in high school, I went on a
trip to Kenya, was charged by a very
large bull elephant,
and I fell in love with Africa. And from
then I wanted to figure out how can I
get back in the field.
So when I went to university and I was
considering many different majors,
I ended up deciding on geography because
it studied the phenomenon I was really
interested in which were environmental
concerns and management practices
from a variety of scales from the micro
all the way up to the global
giving us a more holistic perspective of
each of those phenomena.
So when I was an undergraduate in
geography, I applied for an internship at
the National Geographic Society in
Washington DC and while I was there I volunteered as a
part of their live program
which brings in various geographic
explorers and speakers from around the
world.
I met with some folks who are working on
a conservation project in Gorongosa
National Park in Mozambique
and I was actually able to write and
receive a grant to do an undergraduate
research project there
looking at repeat photography over 72
years to understand
how vegetation had changed in the park
and why.
From this, I went on to transition into
more satellite imagery
throughout grad school still working in
Africa and then I came here last year.
In our department, we have a variety of
majors minors and concentrations.
Everything spanning from sustainability,
climate and climate change,
landscapes and environments, geospatial
technology and
science, all the way through
world cities and economics, and space,
society and culture. So, we have the broad
gamut of geographers in our department
which is really unique.
We also offer a lot of different
internships such as the one i mentioned
at the National Geographic Society. There
are many at the National Geospatial
Intelligence Agency,
NASA, of course NOAA, the National
Weather Service, the Weather Channel,
NationalForest Service, USDA,
CDC, and ESRI which is a leading industry
company
in GIS just to name a few. There's lots
of opportunities for internships
and experiential learning.There's also a
lot of opportunity for undergraduate
research
which will definitely help to jump start
your career no matter what direction you
ultimately decide to take.
After all this is how I found out I
wanted to be an academic.
So, our faculty every day are looking for
students that want to bring new
perspectives to our research.
In addition, we have a lot of
opportunities for
something that geographers love to do
which is traveling the world
and immersing yourself in other cultures.
We offer several study abroad programs
including one with a focus in
sustainability in Germany
and conservation in Africa. Please go to
geography.utk.edu,
follow us on social media at utkgeography, or
feel free to email me directly at
h-h-e-r-r-e-r-o-@-u-t-k.edu for any
questions that you may have.
Find your place at UTK Geography. Have a
wonderful fall
and go Vols!
