Posted in Students

“Surrounded by Maps”: GISPP Student Eugenie Huang Takes On Esri UC

   Published Date: September 18, 2026

Some call it the “mappiest week of the year,” when more than 18,000 attendees from over 100 countries converge in San Diego, CA.

They’re there for the Esri User Conference, an event that blends geospatial education with celebration and in-depth technical sessions with networking.

This year, GISPP student Eugenie Huang (who’s working on her accelerated /non-thesis master’s degree in cartography & GIS) was in the thick of it—and not just as an attendee. Huang was selected as one of just 60 students worldwide to serve as a Student Assistant during the conference.

Opportunities to Learn & Grow

Jack Dangermond sits in a chair; behind him, a large group of students poses for the camera.
Esri Student Assistants pose with Jack Dangermond (center), Esri co-founder and president

Esri Student Assistants are volunteers; they work alongside Esri staff to keep the event running smoothly, pitching in with attendee registration, conference logistics, monitoring technical sessions, and more. “Running around the conference, I got a front-row seat to the heartbeat of Esri,” Huang wrote on LinkedIn. She also got to participate in special events, including a welcome dinner where she met geographer Dawn Wright, and a Student Assistant Appreciation night where Esri co-founder and president Jack Dangermond came to meet with all the student assistants.

Building a Mappier Community

A group of young people stands in a crowded outdoor space, smiling for the camera.
Huang (right) enjoys one of the UC’s social events with other student assistants.

Huang’s path to the User Conference had started several months before, when she served as a Student Assistant at the spring Esri Developer Summit, a position she landed with the support of Professor Song Gao. Huang’s experience at DevSummit helped prepare her for what she’d experience at the User Conference: a community, driven by geospatial and cartography-oriented minds, coming together to solve problems. “GIS is so much more than just maps; it’s the community and the technology moving the world forward together,” Huang wrote.

And networking with all of those geospatial-oriented people from across the world is one of the major perks of the User Conference job. As Huang notes, “The most enjoyable part of UC is always the people.”

Students interested in Esri internships and student assistant positions can learn more on the Esri Student Programs website.

Author: Geography Staff