Happy August Everyone! Hope your summers have been as lively and exciting as our’s have been in the Spatial Analysis Lab. As you already know we hosted 4 fabulous high school students for 5 weeks of learning how GIS is in fact at STEM field. However, we have had many other things going on as well!

Director Kim Browne taught her study abroad course on the physical geography of Australia and New Zealand, we have continued supporting Dr, Ransom with her Uganda project, worked with our Facilities, Police Department, and Office of Advancement on some campus GIS projects, but by far the most exciting part of my summer was a 3 week trip to Tanzania!

Earlier this spring I received a staff Weinstein Summer Grant to travel to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania for three weeks. For most of the month of June I visited alumni and nonprofits in Tanzania with the mission of seeing how our GIS students could work with them in the future on internships and/or research projects. I met with: Financial Sector Deepening Trust, Tanzania Open Data Lab at the University of Dar es Salaam, the Department of Geography at the University of Dar es Salaam, and got to visit the Noloholo Environmental Center, which is run by UR alumni Dr. Laly Litchenfeld. I will be making more in depth posts describing what these wonderful organizations do, so stay tuned!

Super Rough Overview of Trip:

• Spent the first few days in Dar following up my connections.
• Met with Financial Sector Deeping Trust and the Tanzania Open Data Lab
• Flew to Arusha (northern Tanzania) to visit the Noloholo Environmental Center. Got to spend the weekend with the kids at the Children’s Environmental Camp
• Two day safari to Tarangire National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater
• Flew back to Dar
• Visited the Department of Geography at the University of Dar es Salaam and sat in on a World Bank Open Data Workshop hosted by the University
• Trip to Zanzibar before flying home!

This post is mostly a starting point to talk about and show you my incredible trip in Tanzania. I hope these pictures will help inspire students to pursue some of these incredible opportunities that have been made possible thanks to the Weinstein Family and the University of Richmond!

In following posts I will describe the wonderful work our new partners have been completing, list some opportunists our students will have to work with them, and share more in depth reflections on my experience in Tanzania!

Me with the students from the first of three summer camps at Noloholo for the best and brightest from the local Environmental Clubs

When I first arrived at Noloholo the students were learning to make maps of the villages in order to think spatially and about natural resources in the landscape

With Raphael Abrahams, one of the recipients of the Noloholo Environmental Scholarship to private secondary school. Raphael was back helping with the summer camps he participated in as a child before heading off to University

Elephant in Tarangire National Park

Also at Tarangire National Park

Clouds spilling over the walls of the Ngorongoro Crater

Me upon descent into the Ngorongoro Crater

wildebeest herd in the Ngorongoro Crater

Some baboons while leaving Ngorongoro Crater

With Dr. Herbert Hambati, (outgoing) head of the Department of Geography

Sitting in on a World Bank Open Data presentation at the University of Dar es Salaam. Experts spoke about using new elevation data paired with updated Open Street Map data to better plan evacuation routes during floods in Dar and other cities in Tanzania

View of Dar at night

Feeding giant tortoises at Prison Island, just off Zanzibar. Some were over 300 years old!

Sunset in Zanzibar