Welcome!

As a freshman at Trinity University in 2014, I was exploring which educational and professional path would be my best fit. I discovered a new major in the School of Business called Business Analytics and Technology. In this program, I learned how to clean data, derive insights, and build visualizations. Completing this major led to several data analysis projects that developed my admiration for research and the data analysis process.

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Nine days after graduating in May of 2018, I started my career as a Data Integrity Specialist for a small technology company in Austin, Texas. Two years later, the COVID-19 pandemic struck and half of my office was immediately furloughed. Luckily, I belonged to the half that was able to keep working as a fully remote employee. The following months of quarantine allowed me invaluable time to reflect and consider what was important in my life. My fondness for the outdoors grew into a passion for exploring nature and learning about the environment around me. To nurture this growing fascination, I moved to Denver in the summer of 2021.

 

It’s here, in Colorado, that I’ve embraced what is truly important to me. Throughout human history, our planet has never faced such a dire future. I’ve seen firsthand the forests, wildlife, and water systems that humanity’s actions have threatened. Using my skills to help improve the environment and the human experience would be a fulfilling, motivating, and inspiring career. Because of my environmental interests and data analysis experience it became apparent that the field of geospatial science was perfect for me. This led me to begin pursuing a master’s degree in Applied Geography and Geospatial Science at the University of Colorado – Denver.

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Since starting my MA degree at CU Denver in August 2023, I've taken several courses that have provided me with new geospatial analysis and cartographic skills while simultaneously reinforcing my data and communication abilities. Through various projects, I created posters, reports, original maps, and StoryMaps, applying methods like overlay analysis, cost surface analysis, statistical modeling, remote sensing analysis, and more. Since January of 2024, my part-time roles with the National Park Service and the USGS have allowed me to deepen my technical, analytical, and communication expertise. These positions have involved a variety of geospatial projects using ArcGIS and QGIS to explore, edit, and map geospatial data. I've gained proficiency in extracting data from and writing data to geospatial databases, and I've learned to use Python to transform and standardize data structures.

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I’m continuing to develop these skills and more as I continue my academic journey toward graduation in May of 2025 and beyond into my professional career. I feel inspired and motivated to continue learning within the field of geospatial science and GIS, and I’m excited about future opportunities.