“My Wonderful World” Aims to Raise Geographic Awareness

In a recent email to our Chair, Keith Clarke, Caitlin Kontgis provided the following news relating to her continuing undergraduate internship at the Education & Children’s Programs with the National Geographic Society.

I wanted to let you know about a National Geographic led campaign that is being launched on May 2 called My Wonderful World. The 5-year campaign aims to raise the geographic awareness of American Students, and was initiated based on the results of a recent Roper poll, which revealed an alarming lack of geographic knowledge amount young adults.

For example:

• Recent HS graduates in the U.S. ranked second to last in geographic literacy, just ahead of Mexico.
• Nearly 30% can’t identify the Pacific Ocean on a world map.
• 5 out of 10 can’t find India, Japan, Iraq, or Afghanistan
• 10% can’t find the U.S. on a world map
30% believe the population of the U.S. is between one and two billion

I thought that some folks over in the UCSB Geography department might be interested in joining the campaign that we here at NG Education have been working so hard on, so feel free to forward on this information. You can sign up now at , and look for public service announcements to appear on cable programming soon.

Hope all is well out west & I look forward to seeing you soon.

Thanks, Caitlin