Traditions

Faculty of Geography and Earth Sciences is friendly and rich in traditions, because all current and former students are united by friendly relations of so called "Mafia of Geographers" (Latvian: Ģeogrāfu Mafija) and catchword – "I deny the quiet life, I am looking for, what’s the happiness!"

Students of study programmes of environmental science, geology, geography, geoinformatics organise and participate together in different traditional events of the faculty:

• Autumn and spring "georally" – 3 to 4 days boat trip by some river of Latvia with overnight stay in tents. Pretty often it is necessary to prove an individual endurance in rather extreme conditions, for example, awakening in the frozen tent covered with snow, avoiding from fallen deadwood in rivers etc.;
• Sports days;
• Presentation event for the first year students;
• Geodays – one-week long events of faculty celebrations. In this week, within the result of voting, there are established winners of nominations "Lecturer of the Year", "Event of the Year", "Gladness of the Year", etc. Also, an exhibition of photographs takes place, in which the author of the best picture gets prize "Lielais Didriķis". During the Geodays the newspaper "GeoNews" is published, as well as press conference takes place, in which the teaching staff answers to the students' questions;
• Freshman party, in which the first year students must pass different tests;
• School pupils can verify and improve their knowledge in Earth and Environmental Sciences in the Environment Academy and the School of Young Geographers.