Now in its third year, Azavea’s Summer of Maps is a program that offers $5,000 stipends to student spatial analysts to complete pro bono data analysis projects for nonprofit organizations.  Generous sponsorships from Esri and The University of Pennsylvania School of Design help to make this program possible.

We evaluated applications from nonprofits in a wide range of fields and received applications from 125 incredibly talented students from all over the United States. We selected from the top students to be a part of the Summer of Maps program and have matched them with their top project selections!

We are thrilled to have selected:

Tim St. Onge, a M.S. Candidate in the Geographic Information Science for Development and Environment program at Clark University.  Tim will be working on projects  with DataHaven to analyze the relationships between neighborhood indicators in the Greater New Haven and Valley region and with Community Design Collaborative to use spatial analysis to prioritize design grants in Philadelphia.

Amory Hillengas, a Masters of Urban Spatial Analytics student with a Community and Economic Development concentration at University of Pennsylvania.  Amory will be working on projects with GirlStart to analyze funding resources and program adoption of Girlstart in Central Texas and and with City Harvest on the analysis of retail food access in low income communities to measure need for and impact of City Harvest programming.

Jenna Glat, a Bachelors of Arts student in Geography and Spanish at Colgate University. Jenna will be working on projects with TreePeople for the analysis of land cover change in Los Angeles area and The Consortium for Building Energy Innovation to measure the energy efficiency of Philadelphia’s building stock.

Summer of Maps serves the important role of providing free geospatial analysis to non-profit organizations that might not otherwise have the resources for such work, while providing real professional experience to GIS students.  The program focuses on implementing geospatial data analysis projects that will have civic and social impact.  This unique national program is an important part of Azavea’s civic and social mission as a B Corporation.

We are planning to renew this initiative next year and are already encouraging nonprofits and students to sign up for announcements for the 2015 program.