AlaskaGeography.com
David Snyder's Geographical Background
My interest in geography started early on, as a small child, staring at maps for hours on end and memorizing the flags of almost every country as a 6 year old. This may seem like rather bizarre behavior, but what else was there to do in the days before Atari? My parents were also guilty of instilling me with the travel bug. As a child we travelled thoughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, which gave me a great fascination for the world around me.
I graduated from East Anchorage High School in Anchorage, Alaska back in the Reagan era. My interests there were always focused on places. What makes them different, what makes them tick. But the lack of a true geographical education in our schools meant that I was never really aware that geography itself was a true discipline until I entered the University.
I graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madison with a degree in Political Science and International Relations. This included having spent a year at Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg, Germany. In addition to my regular coursework I managed to take in a few geography courses. After doing some post-graduation soul searching, I realized that these geography courses had really stirred my intellectual passions more than anything else and decided to return to graduate school.
I went back to Madison, but this time to the Geography Department and greatly enjoyed my two years there. My focus there was on Economic Geography, for which I produced a thesis entitled "A Geography of Entrepreneurship: Alaskan Businesses in the Post-Soviet Economy of Russia." I took some physical geography courses as well, and loved the way they tied all the forces of our planet together to explain the patterns of hills, mountains, clouds and rivers that appeared before my eyes.
I obtained my Master's Degree and through a friend from my Freiburg days I was able to land a job teaching physical and political geography at Deak Ferenc High School in Szeged, Hungary. Taking those physical geography courses turned out to have been a good idea. It was a bilingual high school, so I was able to teach in English. It was an enjoyable experience, but the wages of a Hungarian teacher were low and my savings at home were dwindling. If I had stayed in Hungary, I would never be able to afford to return home.
Over the years I have travelled extensively throughout North America, Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East and East Africa. The more I know about geography, the more interesting it becomes to visit not only exotic places, but also the mundane. I'm probably the only person I know who made the deliberate choice to drive across Kansas.
I now work as a Geographical Information Systems Analyst (in other words, a cartographer (in other words, a mapmaker)) for Resource Data, Inc. and have been teaching as an Adjunct Instructor in geography for the University of Alaska - Anchorage since 1997. I figure it's hard to beat a life where I can do geography all day, every day if I so desire.
