When College of Mary Washington junior Ethan Sweeny started a summer time internship working alongside Professor of Geography Steve Hanna, he knew he’d signed up for one thing particular.
“I instantly knew it was one thing I used to be going to essentially take pleasure in doing,” stated Sweeny, a geospatial evaluation main who labored with Hanna final summer time and all through the autumn to assist create the Stafford African American Heritage Path. “Utilizing what I’ve realized in school in a real-world mission was actually rewarding, however I believe probably the most rewarding factor I took from it was with the ability to assist inform these wonderful tales which may have been misplaced.”
The path, a 23-stop driving tour, highlights the power and resilience of African American individuals in Stafford County all through the previous 300 years. Formally unveiled throughout a current ceremony at Stafford Hospital, it additionally showcases the connection between UMW and the area people, and the facility of professors to incorporate college students in analysis and different necessary endeavors.
“That is precisely what so a lot of my colleagues at Mary Washington try to do,” Hanna stated on the unveiling occasion, the place he and Sweeny, together with three current UMW graduates, realized they’d been named in a Home Decision by the Virginia Normal Meeting in reward of the mission. “We contain our college students in initiatives with neighborhood companions to create works of consequence, initiatives that make a distinction on this area and throughout the globe.”
Brooke Prevedel, Eliza Vegas and Noah Brushwood, all historic preservation majors who graduated final yr, additionally labored on the maps and the tales that deliver the path to life.
Hanna, identified for bringing college students into neighborhood initiatives like Fredericksburg’s Civil Rights Path and the Fredericksburg Space Museum’s Lafayette’s World exhibit, jumped on the probability to work on the African American Heritage Path, initiated by Uncover Stafford Director Sue Henderson. And when Brushwood graduated final Could, together with Prevedel and Vegas, each of whom additionally earned a GIS certificates, Hanna known as on Sweeny to assist end the job.
UMW geospatial evaluation main Ethan Sweeny and Professor of Geography Steve Hanna (second and third from proper) hear through the studying of a Home Decision by the Virginia Normal Meeting. The decision reads partly: “Whereas Uncover Stafford developed the Stafford County African American Historical past driving tour in collaboration with the College of Mary Washington’s Division of Geography, together with professor Steven Hanna and interns Ethan Sweeny, Noah Brushwood, Brooke Prevedel and Eliza Vegas, who developed digital and print maps detailing the route and the places and tales it options …”
Eunice Haigler, a member of the Stafford African American Heritage Path Advisory Committee, hugs UMW scholar Ethan Sweeny, who performed an instrumental half in designing the maps that make up the path’s on-line presence.
UMW Professor of Geography Steve Hanna speaks through the current ceremony the place the Stafford African American Heritage Path was formally unveiled. “Ethan constructed the web model of the path from the bottom up,” Hanna advised the group gathered at Stafford Hospital for the revealing occasion. Photograph courtesy of Tour Stafford.
This map, which is seen on the homepage of the Stafford African American Heritage Path’s web site, was among the many contributions to the path created by UMW college students below the mentorship of Professor of Geography Steve Hanna.
With knowledge already collected, design prototypes created and story summaries written, he dove in, utilizing ArcGIS mapping software program to tie the fabric – together with photographs and video –collectively in layers and paint a cohesive image for the path and every of its stops. His story-maps, each print and digital, take into account colour theme and different aesthetics, permitting tour-takers to navigate the narratives by scrolling and clicking on imbedded hyperlinks to study extra.
Working at the very least eight hours every week – typically practically twice that, even all through the summer time – Sweeny, who is also pursuing a certificates in GIS, met month-to-month with an advising committee, answering questions, processing suggestions and assembly deadlines. And he maintained fixed contact with Hanna and Henderson, even becoming a member of them for a January City Speak radio spot selling the path.
“I really feel very lucky to have labored on such an impactful and necessary mission that allowed me to take my classroom expertise and use them to assist the area people,” Sweeny stated. “I hope this path will proceed to function a storybook and as a voice for the longer term.”
