“Service, Work, Learning. This is my life. This is fun.”
– Founder, Drew Stephens
In the middle of the night awhile back, I woke up. It hit me. As a teenager my life 
was profoundly impacted by a simple concept – combining work, service and learning. As an adult and a successful businessman in the GIS world for 15 years, this powerful combination had always been in the back of my mind. That night I decided to make it my guiding force.
After graduating from high school in 1982, I spent three months on an Outward Bound course in North Carolina. An important component of the semester program was a “cross cultural” theme. I didn’t really know what that meant, but if it kept me from going to college right after high school, I was in. Outward Bound is famous for using the outdoors as a tool to help participants learn about themselves. In addition to the standard Outward Bound fare, this program intentionally put us in situations to connect and learn from people we wouldn’t normally associate with. As we traveled across the South, our crew worked on a family homestead in The Appalachian Mountains, we served the homeless in shelters and soup kitchens in Atlanta, Georgia. We helped install septic systems for familes on Daufuskie Island, Georgia and stayed with families in Frogmore, South Carolina. We worked, we served, we learned. We had fun.
In 1984, a year and a half after graduating from high school, I began to understand that cleaning swimming pools was not a sustainable career choice for me. It was time to find a college. I found Warren Wilson College, near my family home in Asheville, North Carolina. Work, Service, Academics – now this was something I could at least relate to. This triad is the core of the Warren Wilson philosophy. I now consider it life-building. Every student works 15 hours a week for room and board. In addition, each student was required to complete a 100-hour service project on campus, in the local community, in their hometown, or internationally. I organized a campus workday to build a fitness trail on campus.
We also had to study. The student to teacher ratio of 10 to 1 meant you could not coast through classes. Even then I was interested in the earth and its processes; I chose environmental studies as a major. This place was fun. The student body was 15 percent international — I walked onto the soccer team and played hard with Spaniards, Kenyans, Norwegians, and even some guys from Jersey (New Jersey, U.S.).
I began traveling and soaking up other cultures. I told my dad I was going to take the semester off to hitchhike around New Zealand and Australia. He thought that it was a masked attempt to dropout of college. “No Dad” I assured him, “I like it here, I want to stretch out my time here.” Drawn to geography, I designed a cultural geography independent study for my trip. Having no idea what cultural geography meant, my professor approved it. Observing the place and people of those beautiful lands through the lens of my camera gave me the opportunity to learn what it meant. There is a reason they call those formative years. Service, Work and learning shaped my life – as did the lesson that cultural diversity is a huge resource and constant connection to the outdoors. Since then, geography has been the lens through which I observe place and people.
In the 1990’s I earned a master’s degree in geography. Even my master’s thesis was an opportunity to combine the things I love — service, work, learning, outdoors, culture and adventure. I studied a hydro-project in Costa Rica that have would impacted tourism and permanently changed two of the most beautiful rivers in the world.
I then went to work in the growing GIS industry, first learning UNIX and software of Intergraph Corp., then as an instructor for ESRI in Boulder, CO. GIS is an amazing technology and I have had the honor of helping others from many different fields discover its potential. I’ve worked with law enforcement, forestry, local government, community planners, and international conservation groups. GIS is powerful tool with an immense capacity to help.
My work has taken me around the world. I have been to Antarctica with The National Science Foundation, helped a team a Guatemalans establish a national park with GIS. I have seen the rice fields in Southeast Asia and I’ve felt the peaceful comfort of the Buddhist people of Nepal. I have been to Mt. Everest base camp and wondered at the people working there and the significance of the culture and the science that meet at that altitude. GIS is an unparalleled tool for understanding the places that we love, be it our yard, our parks, our hemisphere, or our planet. It is an important tool for everyone dedicated to conservation and sustainable development to have in their bag of tricks.
Unfortunately, not everyone can afford it. Many conservation biologists, community planners, and indigenous rights groups around the world have yet to be given affordable access to GIS. That is what inspired me to found the GIS institute, to provide access to GIS for those that trying to make the world a better place. But often the people that are attempting to use GIS, live in places where GIS training and support are rare. We get software grants and training to groups as we meet and get to know their needs.
How do we reach them? I propose we reach them by adventuring. I don’t consider adventure a luxury – I consider it a necessity. It’s like cleaning out the nooks and crannies; sometimes you just have to go deep. One could fly and truck in to many sites, but the modern day quick in-in-out model of consulting lacks some key elements important to building international community and cultural understanding — a significant time investment in communities, sharing day-to-day life with those you are working with, and true appreciation of the journey. For the sake of adventure, I learned how to fly small planes and sail.
Now I help bring GIS to people around the world. who need it, yet can’t afford it, by putting adventure into service. The GIS Institute’s inaugural program is Service at Sea, a maritime based, ongoing set of projects to bring GIS to those that need it. Our journeys are be ‘crewed’ with people and students from diverse backgrounds and cultures who are committed to being of service to those trying to make the world a better place. Work, Service, Learning. I’ve been doing this all of my life. Now I’m just doing it intentionally. This is my life. This is fun.