2025 VGA Story Map Contest

The Virginia Geographic Alliance promotes geo-literacy by providing effective professional development programs that enhance the teaching and learning of geography and that demonstrate the value of geographic knowledge and spatial thinking to educators, policy makers, and community members.

The Virginia Geographic Alliance fosters and supports the enduring power of the geographic perspective in social, environmental and geospatial sciences as they develop in schools, universities, businesses, governments and communications media to advance geo-literacy. Acquiring geographic knowledge, skills and technologies enables people to become productive citizens and lifelong learners who

►recognize the importance of place and local-to-global connections,
►understand changing human-environment interactions, and
►apply environmental and spatial perspectives in decision-making and problem-solving.

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2025 VGA Story Map Competition

It is again time for the annual VGA Story Map Competition. The competition is open to all middle and high school students in the Commonwealth.
Students are invited to explore a situation in Virginia and share their results in a ESRI story map. This year's competition theme will focus on "Virginia's urban, rural and suburban connections." More information on this year's contest theme can be found here.

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2025 Chesapeake Bay Institute

We are now accepting applications for the 2025 Chesapeake Bay Climate Institute. Applications are due January 15, 2025 Join us for our fifth year in Wachapreague!
For more information about the institute please view the story map below:
Institute Story Map

Apply Here
Mapping the Commonwealth 1816-1826

Explore the Creation of a
Vital Virginia Government Document
“Mapping the Commonwealth” exhibition runs through June 7, 2025
A new, free exhibition at the Library of Virginia tells the story of 10 years, five governors, two principal surveyors and one lead engraver — the time frame and team needed to create one of the first official state maps in the nation.

On view through June 7, 2025, the exhibition presents examples from 40 manuscript maps that highlight the painstaking task of creating Virginia's first official state map. Correspondence and other documents related to the publication of the map, as well as copperplates — printing plates used for engraving — are also displayed in the exhibition. Combining art and science, these surveys attest to the dedication, skill and stamina of surveying teams who worked without the benefit of GPS and today’s technology.

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