Stalkernet gone wild…except not really.
For my group final project, we decided to create a story telling, interactive map that shows the changes Carleton has experienced throughout time in terms of the geographical locations of its students. It’ll show things like how the geographical concentration of where the students come from has changed over time.
As someone who has experienced different cultures growing up, I think an individual’s cultural backgrounds, geographical locations and origins play a huge part in a person’s identity. Especially in college settings, moving to a completely new place with new people creates cultural shocks. People are not at home. They’re not with friends they’ve had since they were 2 year old. They’re not with their siblings. They can’t have southern or Ethiopian or Chinese or Puerto Rican meals whenever they want to.
This project will show where the students come and how that has changed in the last couple years. What interests me about this is to see how Carleton’s atmosphere has changed as more diverse groups of students have started to come. Has it become more inclusive and culturally aware as more international and other students who aren’t from the Midwest started arriving? Or has it not changed at all? Using the digitalized Zoo Books to gather data, we’ll get information of where students have been arriving from. At the end of this project, I hope to achieve the feeling of accomplishment that I have done something meaningful. I also hope to have a deeper understanding of how who is on Carleton’s campus (in terms of where students come from) shapes its environment.
