Goal 1 | Locating our networks Objective | Locating networks in digital space
Geo-map plots community engagement
In fall 2017, members of the Shared Gold Implementation Team—some 30 faculty, staff, administrators, students and community partners—convened to begin the process of emboldening and increasing WMU’s community engagement initiatives. Early in the meeting, discussion focused upon an acute problem experienced by many members of the team—a difficultly capturing and conveying the scope of WMU’s community engagement efforts. Given the size of the University and the expansiveness of its engagement initiatives (see page 20), team members wondered: How can we meaningfully represent our community engagement work for use by University stakeholders? In the weeks that followed, members of the team set out in search of a tool that would help them solve the problem. They located a specialized software program that would allow them to create an interactive digital map—called a geo-map—of WMU’s community engagement work. One of the team members took the initiative to lead the creation of this
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geo-map—an undergraduate student named Luis Peña. Peña, who is majoring in rhetoric and writing studies and minoring in music, recognized the power of the geo-map to recognize and celebrate the discovery-driven and engaged students, staff and faculty who are becoming involved in communities around the world. Working closely with Jason Glatz, maps specialist for University Libraries, and with support from the Department of Geography, Peña first audited existing geo-mapping
Dr. Brian Gogan, Shared Gold faculty fellow, and Luis Peña.
projects involving WMU, including one that inventories every tree on campus, one that defines the boundaries of University-owned land, and one that tracks the individuals served by WMU’s Unified Clinics. Next, Peña created four prototype geo-maps, each with its own unique design. From these four prototypes, the