When DePaul junior geography student Brooke Robinson first created this map of Lincoln Park, she did so not knowing that it would be featured at the Department of Geography or even throughout the school itself. 

Robinson solely made the map in order to help incoming freshmen students know their way around campus and the residing areas in Lincoln Park. 

“I’m a mentor in the Honors Program, and I wanted to make my group of freshmen mentees something useful for their first quarter of college,” said Robinson. “I created this map with them in mind, and then realized that I could also hand it out to even more freshmen since we (the DePaul Geography Student Association) had a table reserved at the Involvement Fair.”

After numerous professors caught a glimpse of Robinson’s popular and useful map at the fair, many suggested it be featured as the Map of the Month for the Department of Geography — a project started back in Sept. 2013, where a map created by a student would be chosen as a showcase. 

Past maps have explored the poverty and employment in Chicago while others looked at the city’s agriculture or energy consumption, but none have done so much for freshmen as Robinson’s has.

“I want them to see DePaul’s place in Lincoln Park from the perspective of a peer rather than the perspective of the University staff member who created DePaul’s official map that you see on the website,” Robinson said.  “I’m not criticizing DePaul’s map — I think it’s great! But it was made for a different audience. DePaul’s map is for prospective students, their parents or visitors to campus; whereas the map that I created is intended for use by current DePaul students.”

Robinson, who had been working on the map for over a year now, wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just a freshmen guide to everything on campus, but a helping hand to explore the rest of Lincoln Park as well.

“I knew that I wanted to include things on my map that weren’t on DePaul’s official Lincoln Park map from their website — things such as short cuts,” Robinson said.  “Some people never realize that there’s a hallway connecting the Library to the SAC, or that you can cut through the alley between Clifton and Munroe/Belden to get from Clifton Avenue to Racine Avenue.”

When looking at the map, freshman James Zuber said he recognized many of the areas and buildings, but some were new for him.

“It’s something that would be helpful for other students, you can look at your surroundings on campus and easily find yourself on the map,” Zuber said.  “It’s sweet that it points to areas outside of the maps — a lot of these places I’ve never been to or heard so I mean it’d be cool to check it all out.”

The map is full of unseen locations off course of the Lincoln Park designated area, whether it’s east or west, north or south, Robinson makes it a point to feature the surrounding areas of DePaul’s campus and all that encompasses it.

“You have to explore around Lincoln Park to find what places you like to go to,” Robinson said.  “I just wanted to add some personal recommendations of mine as little handwritten notes — such as my Pequod’s shout out at the bottom of the map.”

Adam Blair, an adjunct faculty member of DePaul’s Department of Geography, found the key to Robinson’s map being so helpful was in its simplicity.

“Navigating Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods and network of transit lines can be tough, even with a GPS-enabled smartphone,” Blair said. “In the same way tourists benefit from wayfinding maps when visiting a theme park, I think incoming students will benefit from how simple yet effective this Map of the Month is.”

Reminded by what it was like when she was a freshman at DePaul, Robinson said the map would be a great starting point for incoming students to explore what was around them.  When she was a freshman, Robinson didn’t even know what major she wanted to be – let alone fully understand the helpfulness and clarity a map can have with any particular issues. 

“I became a geography major freshman year after signing up for an Urbanization class because it sounded interesting,” Robinson said.  “I knew I was interested in cities, but only through taking that class did I realize that urban issues and social justice issues — another subject I’m very passionate about — are both studied under the umbrella of geography.”

“The rumors that geography majors just memorize countries and their capitals is false,” Robinson said.

Though Robinson continues to be passionate about the way geography coincides with identifying urban and social issues, her latest addition to the Map of the Month collection was not only created to help students get around campus and beyond it, but to exemplify aspects of DePaul University that only students who have been here a while know of.

“I want students to see DePaul and its ‘isms.’ What I mean by that is that I wanted the details I added to make the map more engaging,” Robinson said.  “The map doesn’t just label buildings and streets — it labels details of the area (like “Smoker’s Row” between Arts & Letters and the SAC, or “fancy Lincoln Park homes” in all the space surrounding campus), which help to create a narrative of what life at DePaul is actually like.”

Whether it’s just knowing where Devil Dawgs is or which direction the beach is, Robinson’s map is alive with its unique features.

“My favorite features of the map are the red dotted-line shortcuts. They’re super helpful if you’re trying to get somewhere quick or trying to walk outside for as little time as possible when it’s -10 degrees,” Robinson said. “I hope other people find those shortcuts as helpful as I do.”