One more thing to think about with your final project

There are two map competitions for college students (one sponsored by National Geographic and one by CaGIS). Your final project map could certainly be designed to be entered into one (or both) of these. 

Details: http://www.natgeomaps.com/mapawards.html

Also you should look at NACIS (North American Cartographic Information Society). They have their own competitions and are more at the forefront of mapping that any other oganization: http://nacis.org/