I am a graduate student in the Geographic Information Science and Technology (GIST) master’s program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I have now finished my course requirements for the program, and I currently fulfilling the final requirement – a GIS practicum – this summer as an intern for the Massachusetts Geological Survey. I intend to pursue full-time employment after the conclusion of the summer internship. In graduate courses, I studied topics such as:

• desktop- and web-based GIS
• GIS programming
• spatial analysis with vector and raster data
• cartographic principles
• remote sensing and image correction/interpretation
• spatial databases and queries
• extract-transform-load workflows

At UMass, I am building upon my studies at Middlebury College, from which I graduated in May 2024 with a B.A. in Conservation Biology. At Middlebury, I was fortunate to be able to take many courses in the Geography department, including several which engaged me in GIS. I learned about the principles of open source GIS, remote sensing, and cartography, the value of a workflow-based approach for geospatial solutions, and the ways in which spatial analysis addresses important questions in the environmental sector.

I strive to use what I have learned about GIS and remote sensing at both of these institutions at a full-time geospatial position in late summer or fall 2025.