<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>In the name of OSM community in Colombia, I just want to give a deep
thanks to Patricia, Chad, Mayro, Carrie and all the wonderful and united
team of YouthMappers, to give us the opportunity to create close to 200
new humanitarian mappers in the country, contributing with relevant
projects for the peace process (ejem, there is a new agreement on the
way with adjustments :-P) and key data for humanitarian crisis in the
country, at the same time connect social responsibility of students
with the mapping in other parts of the world.<br><br></div>It was very dynamic and enjoyable work with yours, I want to be more extensive; but more than words the thanks will come with the further outcomes.<br><br></div>Long live to YouthMappers!<br><br></div>Humberto Yances <br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">2016-11-17 9:14 GMT-05:00 Solis, Patricia <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:patricia.solis@ttu.edu" target="_blank">patricia.solis@ttu.edu</a>></span>:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:14px;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">
<div style="color:rgb(54,73,95);font-family:Arial,Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif">
<span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">Dear HOT community,</span><br>
<br>
<span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">One year ago today, we celebrated the </span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dca0dUQfU6c" style="color:rgb(222,78,58)" target="_blank">launch</a></b></span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif"> of
this adventure now known as YouthMappers. The university </span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif"><b><a href="http://www.youthmappers.org/chapters" style="color:rgb(222,78,58)" target="_blank">consortium</a></b></span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif"> we
are building around Mapping for Resilience has grown in a short time to encompass 42 universities in 13 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The approximate one thousand students who make up this network have now contributed more than 4 million
edits to OpenStreetMap that directly support geospatial data needs for development and humanitarian </span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif"><b><a href="http://www.youthmappers.org/projects-1" style="color:rgb(222,78,58)" target="_blank">projects</a></b></span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">.
The </span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif"><b><a href="http://www.youthmappers.org/faces-voices" style="color:rgb(222,78,58)" target="_blank">voices</a></b></span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif"> of young people around the world
are being heard. With every change to the map, YouthMappers are changing minds about what young leaders can do today to make a difference in our world.</span><br>
<br>
<span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">Many people are to thank for making this past year so surprisingly successful, and it has been my honor to work with each and every one of you. The vision of Carrie Stokes, Director of the USAID GeoCenter in the US
Global Development Lab has propelled us into this movement. Her team, including Chad Blevins, indispensible leader of the Mapping for Resilience program, Michael Crino, our valued program officer, and many others in DC and in the various USAID Missions, have
enabled us to connect the vibrant energy on our campuses to the authentic and important work of the humanitarian and development community. </span></div>
<div style="color:rgb(54,73,95);font-family:Arial,Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif">
<span style="font-family:Georgia,serif"><br>
</span></div>
<div style="color:rgb(54,73,95);font-family:Arial,Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif">
<b><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">Tyler Radford, Director of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and his crew have been essential in helping us integrate smoothly into the HOT community, and we are grateful. To many others at Peace Corps, MapGive,
Red Cross, Missing Maps, and beyond, we appreciate your welcoming us from the global academic community.</span><br>
</b><br>
<span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">Our founding team at George Washington University, West Virginia University and Texas Tech University have poured their hearts and dedicated their talents to building mappers, not just maps. My CoPIs Brent McCusker
and Nuala Cowan in particular have shared and shaped this vision, contributing such creativity and camaraderie essential to our success. For all their guidance, knowledge, and efforts, we also appreciate Jamison Conley, Mike Mann, Ryan Enstrom, Richard Hinton,
Marie Price, Guofeng Cao, Kevin Mulligan, Carlos Portillo, and Duane Nellis. Thanks as well to our partners at UGCIS, American Geographical Society, GISCI, TeachOSM and Mapillary for adding value to this endeavor for our students.
<b>Our local capacity building collaborators from HOT and elsewhere on the ground have accomplished deep impacts that give us real reason to celebrate: Humberto Yances in Colombia; James Eshun and Enock Seth Nyamador in Ghana; Douglas Ssebaggala in Uganda;
Zacharia Muindi and Erica Hagen in Kenya; and Ahsanhul Hoque in Bangladesh.</b> The amazing and hard working cadre of Virtual USAID GeoCenter Interns deserves much praise as well.</span><br>
<br>
<span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">Most importantly, to the student leaders, chapter presidents, officers, members, and faculty advisors of the YouthMappers network, on this anniversary, we are inspired by your overwhelming response and continuous generosity
of your time and talents. We are listening to your words and deeds. We take heart in the face of food insecurities, malaria outbreaks, water conflicts, urban inequities, household shocks, droughts, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes, and the many
other difficult issues we are tackling together. </span><br>
<br>
<span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">Many challenges and opportunities lie ahead in our second year. We aim to continue to ensure that new mappers receive quality education, training, and mapping experiences that add value to their career trajectories.
We will continue to study our impact and adjust to the needs of the student body and the communities served. We will honor and support young <a href="http://www.youthmappers.org/apply-leadership-fellows-initiative" style="color:rgb(222,78,58);font-weight:bold" target="_blank">leaders</a> with
a May workshop in Nepal, with thanks in advance to our host Nama Budhathoki of Kathmandu Living Labs. We will launch new campaigns to exalt female students and undertake gender related development programming with our Let Girls Map efforts. We will implement
new research fellowships and additional rounds of local capacity building, and promote virtual and personal exchanges to consolidate our widely distributed network and empower the youth community. We welcome your ideas and participation as we continue our
next year of this movement! </span><br>
<br>
<span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif"><span style="font-weight:bold">Happy anniversary YouthMappers</span> and a merry GeoWeek to all!</span></span></div>
<div style="color:rgb(54,73,95);font-family:Arial,Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif">
<br>
<span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">Yours truly,</span></div>
<div style="color:rgb(54,73,95);font-family:Arial,Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif">
<br>
<span style="font-family:Georgia,serif">Patricia</span></div>
<div style="color:rgb(54,73,95);font-family:Arial,Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif">
<span style="font-family:Georgia,serif"><br>
</span></div>
<div style="color:rgb(54,73,95);font-family:Arial,Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif">
<span style="font-family:Georgia,serif"><br>
</span></div>
<div style="color:rgb(54,73,95);font-family:Arial,Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif">
<div>
<div style="background-color:white;margin:0px"><font color="#222222"><font color="black"><b>Patricia Solís, Ph.D.</b></font></font></div>
<div style="background-color:white;margin:0px"><span style="color:rgb(13,13,13);font-size:13px">Co-Director, Center for Geospatial Technology</span></div>
<div style="background-color:white;margin:0px"><span style="color:rgb(13,13,13);font-size:13px">Research Associate Professor of Geography, Department of Geosciences</span></div>
<div style="background-color:white;margin:0px"><font color="#222222"><span style="font-size:13px"><font color="#0D0D0D">Adjunct Associate Professor, Climate Science Center</font></span></font></div>
<div style="background-color:white;margin:0px"><span style="color:rgb(13,13,13);font-size:13px"><br>
</span></div>
<div style="background-color:white;margin:0px"><span style="color:rgb(13,13,13);font-size:13px">Director, YouthMappers</span></div>
<div style="background-color:white;margin:0px"><br>
</div>
</div>
<div style="background-color:white;margin:0px">
<div style="margin:0px"><img src="cid:7CACFDA8-2488-4EF2-A610-C0E166971D2D" type="image/png"></div>
<div style="margin:0px">
<div style="margin:0px"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri;color:rgb(12,12,12)"><a href="http://www.youthmappers.org" target="_blank">www.youthmappers.org</a></span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri"> </span></div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<div style="margin:0px"><font style="font-size:13px" color="#1155CC"></font></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
HOT mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:HOT@openstreetmap.org">HOT@openstreetmap.org</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://lists.openstreetmap.<wbr>org/listinfo/hot</a><br>
<br></blockquote></div><br></div></div>