🧭 Get a little involved

We assist Smith or Five College students, both those who are currently enrolled in classes that are using or working with the SAL, and students interested in applying these techniques to their projects, studies, or internships.

SALentine with heart shaped earth, saying "Love Data Week! Would you be my SALentine? It would mean the world."
SALentine for Love Data Week, designed by SAL associate Lily Gould (’26).

Regular lab hours – The SAL’s two classrooms (Sabin-Reed 104 and Neilson 012D) are open during regular building hours. 

Drop-in open help hours – The SAL staff and associates hold help hours in our classroom spaces most weekdays during the semester. During these times, anyone is welcome to drop in without making an appointment. See hours and availability on the SALendar, or use the contact us page to reach out directly if help hours don’t work for you. 

Workshops – We host workshops on a variety of topics each semester. Recent ones have included GIS Fundamentals, Mapping Public Health, Fantasy Cartography, and Tactile Mapping. Workshops are open to students, faculty, and staff, and unless otherwise specified, are geared toward students and require no prior GIS experience. Please feel free to reach out with workshop requests or ideas!

Events – We occasionally have pop-up and seasonal events. Recent ones include distributing SALentines for Love Data Week, in collaboration with the Libraries; button making with historic maps of Northampton during Orientation; and a crowdsourced Chubby Critters map, inspired by Fat Bear Week.

Map of vernal pools and priority habits for rare species in Hampshire County, created during GIS Fundamentals Workshop, developed and led by Zu Sikes ('26).
Map created during GIS Fundamentals Workshop, developed and led by Zu Sikes (’26).

🧑‍💻 Get tailored project support and geospatial education

One on one instruction and consultation – The SAL staff is available to provide instruction or guidance on how you can incorporate GIS, maps, and/or spatial thinking into an independent class project, thesis, special studies, research assistantship, or internship. Students are also welcome to schedule a one on one meeting with us for smaller projects if our open help hours don’t work with your schedule.

Maps and figures – Depending on the scope of your project, the SAL team is available to create maps and other figures using spatial data for presentation or publication.

Interactive webmap showing campus building histories, developed from start to finish by SAL associates.

🦺 Work with us

SAL associate (paid) – SAL student associates support all aspects of our work and come from any discipline. We usually post the associate position to mapmonsters and other mailing lists in mid-July.

SAL steering committee (volunteer) – We started inviting students to serve on the SAL steering committee in the 24-25 academic year. So far, it’s been by invitation based on wanting a balance of student perspectives. However, if you are interested in getting involved with the SAL steering committee, please reach out. We meet for an hour 2-3 times a semester.