My name is Hana Goldstein and am 20 years old. I grew up in Plainview, New York on Long Island. I’m a geography major at the State University of New York at New Paltz as an incoming junior. I am also in the Honors program at my university where I’m part of a diverse community, engaged in a rather interdisciplinary curriculum. This upcoming school year, I will be the new secretary of my school’s geography club, in which I look forward to furthering my passion for the field. Currently I am an intern at the American Geographical Society and will be here at the AGS headquarters in Brooklyn Heights until August.
I am pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Geography, a comprehensive major that focuses on many subdivisions of the discipline. As a student in the honors program, I am engaged in an interdisciplinary environment, working with peers from a multitude majors. As a student focusing on geography, I’ve learned just how important it is to understand that everything is interconnected, especially the relationship between humans and their environment.
As far back as I can remember, geography has always been a subject matter that I found incredibly fascinating. I can recall when I was a young child, I was gifted a children’s world atlas. This easily became my favorite book for years to come. My personal interests in this field are cultural and physical geography. I have a huge passion for interacting with international college students, as this allows me to better understand other cultures and the way others live around the world. I also have a love for traveling and an appreciation for maps of all kinds.
Unfortunately, geography is no longer a required subject in schools across the United States. In addition, a large bulk of US students are underperforming in this subject because of this lack of formal geographical education. This concerns me because geography is essential for understanding how things in our world are spatially interconnected. Geographic knowledge is vital for human survival in our rapidly globalizing world, one of the main reasons why I’m a strong advocate for it to be taught at every grade level as its own subject matter.
This summer at AGS, I look forward to learning more about just how
diverse our interconnected globalized world is today. My role as an intern will consist of lots of writing and researching, as well as improving my knowledge in the geographical landscape. I am excited to see what this experience at AGS brings me!