An interactive map that helps students find internship and clinical placement sites by program, location, and distance. It shows site details, contact info, and how to apply.
Finding an internship or clinical placement site should be one of the most exciting parts of a student's program. Instead, it was one of the most stressful. Students were given a spreadsheet, sometimes dozens of pages long, with site names, addresses, and outdated phone numbers. They'd spend hours Googling locations, calculating drive times, and cold-calling facilities that had stopped accepting placements years ago. For students in rural areas, the process was even worse: they had no easy way to tell which sites were actually within a reasonable commute.
Program coordinators were drowning too. Every semester brought the same flood of emails: "Is this site still active?" "How far is this from my ZIP code?" "Which sites accept students from my program?" Coordinators maintained their own private spreadsheets, each slightly different, and there was no central source of truth. When a new site was added or an existing one changed its requirements, that information lived in someone's inbox, not in a system anyone else could access.
The institution needed something visual and simple. Something a student could open on their phone, type in their ZIP code, set a radius, and instantly see every available placement site on a map, filtered by their specific program. No more spreadsheets or guesswork. Just a map that shows what's nearby and tells you exactly how to apply.
Students cross-referenced spreadsheets with Google Maps, calculating distances one address at a time. A task that should take minutes consumed entire afternoons.
Every coordinator had their own version. Site data was scattered across email threads, personal files, and shared drives with no single source of truth.
Students in rural or suburban areas couldn't easily identify which sites were within driving distance. Many didn't realize viable options existed 20 miles away.
The same placement questions arrived semester after semester. Coordinators spent more time answering "where can I go?" than actually managing site relationships.
I gathered placement site data from every program coordinator, pulling together spreadsheets, email threads, and old institutional records into one normalized dataset. Every site address was geocoded into latitude/longitude coordinates and tagged with program eligibility, contact info, and application requirements.
We built the front end on Leaflet.js with marker clustering to handle dense urban areas without overwhelming the view. The map loads fast on both mobile and desktop, with smooth panning and zooming that adjusts the viewport automatically when you filter results. GeoJSON powers the data layer for efficient spatial queries.
We built a search system where students enter their ZIP code and select a radius (10, 25, or 50 miles). The app calculates distances using the Haversine formula and filters the map in real time, so only sites within range appear. Combined with program-specific filtering, students see exactly what's relevant to them.
Each map marker opens a popup with the site name, address, phone number, email, accepted programs, application instructions, and a direct link to Google Maps for driving directions. We built the whole interface mobile-first so students could search from their phone between classes or on the go.
We'd love to talk about how an interactive map could simplify placements, site discovery, or other location-based workflows at your institution.
Start a ConversationEvery approved placement site appears as a pin on a fully interactive Leaflet.js map. Students can pan, zoom, and click any marker to see site information without leaving the page.
Students type their ZIP code and select a search radius. The map instantly filters to show only sites within that range, calculated using real geographic distance, not just city boundaries.
A dropdown lets students filter sites by their specific program: healthcare, business, IT, and others. Only sites that accept students from that program show up on the map, so there's no irrelevant clutter.
In dense metro areas with dozens of sites, markers automatically cluster into numbered groups. Zoom in and clusters expand smoothly into individual pins. The map stays clean and fast at every zoom level.
Click a marker and you see the full details: name, address, phone, email, accepted programs, application steps, and a direct link to Google Maps. Everything a student needs to take the next step, in one popup.
Built mobile-first so students can search from anywhere: between classes, on a bus, or sitting in a parking lot wondering what's nearby. The map, filters, and popups all work on any screen size.
The default view shows all available placement sites across the region. Dense areas display numbered cluster badges that expand on zoom. The left panel has search and filtering controls that update the map in real time.
After entering a ZIP code and selecting a 25-mile radius, the map recenters and draws a boundary circle. Only sites within that range appear, with distance labels that show exactly how far each site is from the student's location.
Tapping a marker on a phone reveals a compact detail card with the site name, contact info, accepted programs, and a one-tap button to open directions in Google Maps. The mobile layout stacks controls so they're easy to reach with your thumb.
Before this tool, I would have students email me ten times asking about the same sites. Now they pull up the map, find what's near them, and come to me with specific questions about specific locations. It completely changed how we handle placements.
Building the map took a few weeks. Cleaning and geocoding the site data took longer. Over a third of the addresses in existing spreadsheets were incomplete or flat-out wrong. The tool's value depends entirely on the quality of the data behind it, and nobody had invested in that quality until there was a visible reason to. The map made bad data impossible to ignore.
Some students never opened the placement spreadsheet at all. It was overwhelming and felt like homework. The same information on an interactive map changed their behavior overnight. They explored on their own, bookmarked sites, and showed up to advising already prepared. The information didn't change. The interface did. Presentation matters more than most people think.
This feature started as a convenience for urban students with lots of nearby options. It turned out to matter most for rural students who assumed nothing was within reach. Students who thought they'd have to relocate for their placement discovered sites 15 or 20 miles away they never knew existed. The radius filter saved time, yes, but more importantly it kept students in the program who might have otherwise dropped out.
Every project starts with a conversation. Tell us about your placement challenges and let's figure out what a map-based discovery tool could look like for your students.
No pitch. No pressure. Just a conversation about what might work.