About VGA

The Virginia Geographic Alliance (VGA) is a non-profit educational organization supported by the National Geographic Society and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Our goal is to prepare Virginia's students for effective citizenship and productive employment in the 21st century by assuring that geography is well taught and well learned.

VGA sponsors activities aimed at K-12 curriculum development, teacher training, assessment, and public awareness.

To overcome the costs in time and money of travel in a state the size and shape of Virginia, the VGA has structured itself into 5 regions, each with its own regional coordinator, budget, programs and networking potential. The state-wide steering committee allocates resources to each region based on written program proposals and contractual agreements. State coordinators provide overall leadership and management.

Brief History of the Virginia Geographic Alliance

The Virginia Geographic Alliance was founded in 1986 as one of the first 13 state alliances established under the National Geographic Society's initiative to promote geography education in the US. After twelve years of securing operating funds through Virginia's DOE, Radford University, and legislative budget amendments for Radford University and most recently Virginia Tech, the Alliance will now operate on earnings from a $1,000,000 endowment managed by the National Geographic Society's Education Foundation. The endowment is the result of $392,000 from the state of Virginia and $108,000 contributed by the Bloedorn Foundation. These funds were then matched by the National Geographic Society. Extensive in-kind contributions from public schools and universities in the Commonwealth and the volunteered time of hundreds of K-12 educators supplement the annual budget.

To date VGA has conducted six three week residential Alliance Summer Geography Institutes (ASGIs) to certify K-12 teachers as Teacher Consultants (TCs); has held a number of other summer institutes, several of which focused on use of technology in the geography classroom; and has presented a variety of workshops and mini-institutes during the academic year that were both content- and pedagogy-based. Geography for Life Explorers, a train-based summer institute across the United States and Canada, has proved especially popular. Thousands of teachers have participated in these activities in order to enhance their instruction of geography and to learn how to integrate geography into other subjects.