Which program did you participate in and when?
I got my start as a special student at UW–Madison in the Fall of 2017, before applying to the Advanced Capstone Certificate in the Fall of 2019. During those first two years, I managed to tick off many of the required classes for the online capstone: Geog 370, 377, 378 and 578.
After earning the capstone certificate at the end of Summer 2020, I took a couple years off to work, before deciding to build on my previous success and enroll in the Online Master's Program for the Spring of 2023. I went on to graduate the following May.
Could you tell us a little about your career and education path?
I received my BA in history and German from Lawrence University (Go Vikings!) in the spring of 2017. As such, my educational background is largely rooted in the liberal arts. During my four years at Lawrence, I took many courses on American and European history, as well as in other areas, and no fewer than ten semesters of German (ja, ich spreche gern Deutsch). In addition to these humanities-focused departments, I also took several programming courses in my senior year, where I became quite familiar with Java, HTML and JavaScript as well as R. Little did I think about where that would take me next.
Although geography wasn’t immediately top of mind for me, it was also not distantly related from my previous forays into history, international relations and foreign languages. I feel fortunate to have found the success I had in those fields.
In short, I would call my career and education path semi-conventional and related in a kind of roundabout way. What I mean by that is on some level, many fields connect in some way or another to geography, which to me not only entails the study of place and location, but also how various, disparate concepts relate to one another.
Current job?
Fun-employed, as I've been telling people, and on the job hunt! Most recently, however, I was at the State Cartographer's Office, helping work on various projects.
Favorite memories of GISPP?
Although I consider myself more of a GIS enthusiast than a cartographer, I really enjoyed making interactive maps for Geog 572. One that I’m especially proud of is a World War II-themed tile map that I made for Lab3.
In what ways did your experience with GISPP prepare you for and enhance your career?
Well, I can say most of what I know and can do with GIS I owe to my ~seven years at UW–Madison. From the basics of distinguishing to the more technical with spatial interpolation & geocomputing to creating full-stack web apps using JS, most everything technical & conceptual came out of the hallowed Science Hall.
Favorite map?
For me, it really is hard to pick just one. However, one that does stand out is a topographic relief map of Switzerland which was part of our curriculum from 572.
What advice would you give current students?
As my grandfather who worked for the Wisconsin DOT’s rail division would say, “Find something you love doing, then someone who’s willing to pay you for it.” My dad would say the same thing + something tech oriented. Those are wise enough words as is.
For my part, when you get into a particular field or subject, try and explore as much of it as you can, and figure out what resonates with you. You may not know what your specialty is in that field (as a geographer, I am a generalist but largely settled on transit and urban planning as my areas of interest), but if you look into different aspects of geography, cartography, GIS, etc. you’d be surprised to see how many industries they apply to and how you can deliver solutions for various organizations. Furthermore, it helps to have a background in environmental studies or engineering, but that doesn’t mean doors will not open for you if you don’t. I like to think whatever your background is, there’s literally a place for you in geography.
What do you like to do for fun?
When not making web apps, I like to get outdoors, especially bike, hike, paddleboard, cross-country and telemark ski in the winter, sail. I enjoy playing piano and guitar and crafting new tunes whenever I pick up an instrument. I am an avid chess player and can confidently say I’ve beaten my neighbor who happens to be enterprise architect emeritus from UW’s DoIT.