Kathy took GIS classes and applied it to her Comps.
My first experience with GIS at Carleton was in ENTS 120, Intro to GIS. I liked the course enough to take Remote Sensing and Landscape Ecology the next semester. Later, I asked Tsegaye if I could work in the GIS lab, and I started working with Wei-Hsin in the Goodsell basement. Tsegaye also got me an internship at the University of Minnesota one summer. That was my first time working with raster data for a real application – modeling nitrogen and phosphorus runoff, which I indirectly applied to my Comps the next year.
Kathy has found jobs by reaching out to her GIS connections
Since graduating from Carleton, I have had a variety of jobs and internships that use GIS for different environmental applications. I’ve used it to model agricultural best practices, estimate wildland fire risk, analyze indicators of thunderstorm development, and identify areas for wetland restoration. Formal coursework/training was not the primary factor in getting these jobs/internships – it was personal connections from Carleton. So if you’re interested in getting a GIS job after college, tell your professors and reach out to alumni! Odds are they know someone who might have an opportunity for you.
One way GIS has helped me in a non-GIS job is through my work in aerospace education. I had a GIS internship through NASA, and my advisor had an interest in education. He and I and two colleagues started Destination SPACE, a non-profit where students learn about satellites and remote sensing through building sensors, launching weather balloons, and working with real satellites. My background in spatial data, particularly satellite data, was essential for developing lesson plans and teaching students about aerospace and remote sensing.
GIS is very powerful and data centered
GIS is everywhere – instead of sharing what opportunities there are for GIS, it is hard to think of anything that can’t use GIS! My work has been primarily centered around environmental data, so when I think of the future of GIS I often think of modeling the impacts and response to climate change. In addition to predicting sea-level rise, wildland fire risk, and hurricanes, we can use it to predict climate’s impact on crop production, human migration, economic trends, and endless other things I haven’t thought of yet.
Carleton students don’t necessarily need to take additional coursework or training to get a job in GIS, even if they’ve only taken ENTS 120. But, understanding the basics of working with spatial data is helpful for all sorts of careers. I’d especially recommend learning GIS beyond ArcGIS. Learning Python, R, statistics, JavaScript, SQL, etc. can open up so many more opportunities.