Maggie Cawley

Maps can help in navigating an unfamiliar city or a new hiking trail. But to Maggie Cawley, that only scratches the surface of their potential. “Smart maps” using geographic information systems are increasingly useful for tasks ranging from predicting the spread of a cholera epidemic to projecting the effect of rising sea levels on the East Coast. Here in Baltimore, Cawley realized that the same technology she harnesses to do things like help the Friends of Leakin Park track invasive species can give teenage girls a push into the worlds of science and technology – while helping them to know their hometown a little better.

For the past two summers, Cawley worked with teens in the Parks and People Foundation’s BRANCHES program, planting and pruning trees and also creating maps. They plotted the locations of vacant houses on Baltimore’s west side, shops on The Avenue in Hampden and everything from the placement of trash cans to the sights, sounds and even smells along Baltimore’s segment of the National Park Service’s Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail. The experience inspired Cawley to create MapGirlz, an initiative of her consulting company, Boomerang Geospatial.

Cawley loves the way mapping can introduce young people to the world of science and technology in a way that’s fun and unintimidating – which she says is especially important for girls, who are less likely to be comfortable with digital technology. “It’s approachable,” she says. “It kind of opens the door for other learning about computer science and coding.” It’s also a discipline that dovetails neatly with almost any subject a young person might be interested in, ranging from music to math to sports.