All Majors Geography & Anthropology Summit

Members of SAGGA introducing the All Majors Summit

A summit suggests mountain-top experiences, high-level gathering, meetings of the minds. Well, the Student Advisory Group for Geography and Anthropology (SAGGA) – with support from the Geography and Anthropology Club – recently hosted the first of what we hope are annual summits to bring geography and anthropology majors and minors together with department faculty and staff to highlight our disciplinary community and tradition.  

About 60 geography and anthropology students, staff and faculty gathered on Thursday, February 27th, in the Davies Center's Dakota and Alumni rooms from 5-7:30 pm to share and encourage.  SAGGA's program was designed for faculty, staff and students to meet, to get to know one another, and to learn from each others' experiences.  Over refreshments, students shared their stories in small groups and, more formally, the department presented programmatic developments and academic opportunities.  Students were given the opportunity to provide feedback and comments, which SAGGA will use to compile suggestions for the department.

Geography majors after the Summit
Indeed, our department is just large enough that students can move through our program oblivious to faculty outside of specific interest areas, and oblivious to the range of opportunities available to them.  The Summit was an attempt to begin to redress that and encourage students to introduce themselves and get to know more of the faculty, their peers, and the possibilities offered by the department.  By many accounts, the Summit was a success.  I, for one, met numerous students for the first time and heard their individual stories, stories that may otherwise have passed me right by.

May this first summit be a reminder and encouragement that we are the better for building relationships and working together.

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