It would be nice to see representitives from the K-12 community along with representitives from the college communities. That would give them a chance to see what we are all about and give them a chance to give us some ideas about what they are facing from within the school system.
Getting GIS approved as an elective that would count towards college acceptance would be a giant step right now most counselors look at GIS as a filler course that the students can fill out a schedule with not with something that is going to help them in the future. Students have to have so many credits in college entrance courses and GIS is not one of them but should that student decide to go into any of the sciences, forestry or engineering they will all be exposed to GIS, better in high school than in college.
Maybe we should have a student page where they would have to sign in so we could get a handle on how many students might be interested in GIS. It could also explain scholarship opportunities and possibly get some input from professors in GIS and Geography. Most students, teachers and especially counselors don't understand the power of GIS or even what it can be used for.
Recruiters, how about getting some people that are working in the GIS community to visit schools, talk about jobs and opportunities in the GIS community.
Internships, most of the students that I have had contact with want jobs how about talking to some employers? These students would work cheap and get a good feel for the direction they might want to go. If counselors knew about jobs they would be more likely to push students in our direction. These counselors also need to know about the scholarships available that also would cause some interest.
We somehow must make MAGIP more visible, GIS Day has pretty much died here in the Flathead so we need to maybe have a contest like some of the other states do with science http://ucop.edu/mesa/mesa_day_rules/MESA_USA_Wind_Energy_2010-2011.pdf. I'm not saying that we should do a science project of this sort but make up our own GIS project that would have to be done using ESRI software and submitted in video format. Use teams of 3-5 people with no more than 2 teams from each school, winner would recieve some sort of grant that we could possibly get donated. Give six weeks to complete the project. Assign a MAGIP member as a mentor to help answer questions and help with the project.
Just some ideas I've been thinking about.
Thanx for asking,
Denny
