ESRI and Geographic Data Technology Inc. (GDT), announced that seven select U.S. educators will receive scholarships to attend the 2003 ESRI Education User Conference. Recipients will receive the GDT Scholarship for travel costs and ESRI will provide complimentary admission to the conference in San Diego, California, July 69, 2003.

GDTs contribution is part of its continuous effort to bring mapping solutions and geographic information system (GIS) technology to educators. The scholarships are part of GDTs goal to inform higher education and K12 educators about the importance of GIS technology in the classroom.

GIS education helps students understand and explore the world around them, says Don Cooke, founder of GDT. GDT is proud to team with ESRI to offer scholarships to this years Education User Conference. The scholarship is an important way of enhancing ESRIs educational outreach programs at a time when many school budgets are being tightened.

The ESRI Education User Conference is the perfect forum for education professionals to share their experiences, participate in discussion, view demonstrations, and learn about the increasing benefits of GIS in their profession. Last year approximately 500 K12 teachers, college and university instructors, school administrators, librarians, and museum professionals were able to attend the conference, but financial constraints prevented many others from participating. ESRI is extremely pleased to have GDTs support in enabling more educators to participate in the Education User Conference.

For more information about the conference, visit www.esri.com/educ. To learn more about GDT, go to the GDT Web site at www.geographic.com.