West Virginia University students Jamie M. Brick of Morgantown and Aaron F. Cumashot of Slatyfork have been awarded prestigious internships with the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. Both are geography majors in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.

The National Geographic Society (NGS), founded in 1888, is one of the nation’s oldest scientific organizations and perhaps the best-known scientific organization in the world. National Geographic offers public education efforts such as the National Geographic magazine and television series, the National Geography Bee and the NGS museum in Washington, D.C.

The highly-competitive geographic internship program is designed for geography and cartography majors enrolled in their junior or senior year of college or in a master’s degree program.

“For a geography program to get one NGS fellowship every three or four years is a great honor. Receiving two in one year is a great testament to Aaron and Jamie and the high level of academic achievement they have attained,”said Kenneth C. Martis, associate chair for Geography in the Department of Geology and Geography.

A The awarding of these prestigious internships to arts and sciences students indicates the strength of our programs and the quality of our students,commented Rudolph P. Almasy, interim dean of the Eberly College.

During their internships, which will take place at NGS headquarters in Washington, D.C., the student fellows will be assigned to a specific division within National Geographic, which may include article research, photography, conservation and environmental projects, cartography or working with the latest computer technology of Geographic Information Science (GIS) and Global Positing Systems (GPS).

“In the last 15 years, geography has entered the high-tech field and is now ranked by the U.S. Department of Labor as one of the three top fields of expanding employment in the 21st century,”Dr. Martis pointed out.

Brick’’s internship will take place during the summer of 2005. During her school work at University High School in Morgantown, she took one of the first Advanced Placement (AP) high school geography courses offered in the state of West Virginia.

A Taking that class made me realize how interconnected the world is and how it all comes back to geography, @ Brick stated. A Geography is not just knowing the capital of Norway any more. Geography offers us a wealth of knowledge and makes our world more understandable. @

Cumashot, who will serve his internship in the spring semester of 2005, graduated from Pocahontas High School in 1996 and worked for several years before entering WVU . He said he decided to major in geography because”[The field] presents insight into the breadth of modern human and environmental situations. To me, geography is a confluence of useful knowledge with infinite applications.”

For more information, contact Martis at kmartis@wvu.edu or 304-293-5603 ext. 4320.