Geography is not just studying maps or memorizing the states and their capital cities and major products. Geography is the study of the Earth's surface: where things are and why they are there. What kind of things? All kinds. Every day there are geographers investigating the physical characteristics of the Earth such as its weather and climate, its landforms and rivers, the soils and vegetation while others are looking at the distributions of human characteristics such as population and settlement, and the patterns of economic and political activity. Still others are planning cities, assessing environmental uses and issues, helping locate stores and factories, preparing maps, and using the latest computer and satellite technology to understand the patterns of our planet.

Geographers work in many areas, although what they do may not carry the title of "geographer". Some work for the government at all levels from international organizations, through the federal government and on down to the state and local level. They may be involved in conducting inventories of existing physical and man-made features, or they may be planning for the future using sophisticated technologies such as geographic information systems (GIS) which marries computer technology with the ancient art of cartography. Other geographers are working in the private sector helping major corporations figure out where the best places to locate their facilities would be, or analyzing the ideal transportation routes to get goods to the market or raw materials to the factory. Every time you eat in a fast food restaurant or drive by a shopping mall, you can be sure that someone used geographic skills to decide where it should be, and, in all likelihood, another geographer prepared a map to show others the results of those decisions. And then there is the teaching profession at every level from elementary school through post-graduate institutions. Geographers not only train other geographers, they impart the skills of knowing where things are and, more importantly, why they are there, to their students so that they might better understand how they fit into today's increasing global world.