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What was your 'Aha!' moment? Do you recall that moment when you realized that a geospatial career was for you?
Our NEURISA presidents met with Jack Dangermond of Esri and learned of Jack's 'Aha' moment. After sharing Jodie, Jay, and Pam's 'Aha' moments, they realized how important it was for us to share how we navigated our careers so that others could learn about the many different career paths available to them. It's not all map making! With this in mind, NEURISA hosted a GeoLunch Roundtable discussion at NEURISA Day 2020 and shared what got us to where we are in our careers. Following up on this we are now hosting regular 'Aha!' moments so that everyone could gain from our collective experiences.
If you want to learn more about Jack Dangermond's 'Aha!' moment please watch this clip from our YouTube channel here:
Now it's your turn! If you would like to share your 'Aha!' moment, please fill out this survey: https://arcg.is/zGf4q.
Curious to read more moments? Check out the Featured "Aha!" Moments and the Gallery below!
Featured "Aha!" Moments
Meet Jeff Olson, GIS Analyst and NEURISA At-Large Board Member. What was your "Aha" moment? Jeff's "Aha" moment occurred during his freshman year in college. I was attending the University of Tennessee (Go Vols!) as a Civil Engineering major. During my first semester I realized rather quickly that it wasn't for me. At the time I had a very interesting Geography class as a general elective. One day I was meeting with my Geography Professor and we were discussing geography as a possible major for me. Ever since I was a kid I had a lot of interests in maps and the geography. I was the type of kid who would spend hours looking at maps would memorize all the roads in my area. On road trips I would follow along in my atlas and remember all the landmarks. As we were discussing geography careers, she mentions GIS as the up & coming dynamic technological field. She went into a greater description of the geospatially tied databases and I was instantly hooked! Over the next few years I took any and every course related to GIS, Cartography & Remote Sensing & I have never looked back! How has your "Aha" moment affected your career path? Jeff has been working in the GIS field ever since he graduated from the University of Tennessee and is active in GIS community events and professional societies. |
Meet Peter Van Demark, retired Princiapl GIS Specialist. What was your "Aha" moment? Peter's "Aha" moment began in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Peter was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, attending the Geographic Data Handling Conference in 1972. "This was before GIS was a thing, but many of the pioneers of our field were at that week-long conference. It served as a short course in going beyond automated cartography to having data attached to point, line and area vector objects, or to have raster layers that could be compared and combined, or even to go back and forth between vector and raster analysis. We were still in the punch card and JCL era, but I saw what was possible as algorithms and computers evolved." How has your "Aha" moment affected your career path? I've been involved with what became GIS ever since, while working on my masters, at a non-profit research group in Rochester NY, and at Caliper Corporation in Newton MA. I've seen it evolve from something only for the practitioners to an everyday tool we all have on our smartphones. |
Meet Jennie Byron, NEURISA President and AEC Senior Solution Engineer at Esri. What was your "Aha" moment? Jennie's "Aha" moment began in Nova Scotia, Canada. "After completing my geology degree at Acadia University, I was introduced to a GIS program at the Centre of Geographic Sciences. It was there that I learned the value of combining geology and GIS to better understand how the world forms and how it changes over time." How has your "Aha" moment affected your career path? GIS has provided me with incredible opportunities to map below the earth's surface, experience working on interesting projects, travel the world, and meet wonderful people along the way. |
Meet Jodie Gosselin,
NEURISA Immediate Past-President and Director of Geospatial Technologies at Dawood Engineering. What was your "Aha" moment? Jodie's "Aha" moment began with a spontaneous cross country road trip that led her to explore a degree in geography. In her words: "I was fascinated by the interrelationship between the physical and human environments and how that changed from region to region. Having previously considered a degree in computer science, GIS was a logical fit once I was introduced." How has your "Aha" moment affected your career path? |
Meet Lynn Carlson, GISP, Principal/GIS Manager at Compass Cartographic, NEURISA At-Large Board Member & NEURISA Associate Marketing/Social Media Coordinator. What was your "Aha" moment? How has your "Aha" moment affected your career path? |
Meet Sarah Baker, Planning & GIS Associate. What was your "Aha" moment? |
Meet Thad Dymkowski, NEURISA Board Member and Treasurer, and GIS Analyst for the town of South Windsor, Connecticut. What was your "Aha" moment? |
Meet Sarah Leidinger, GIS Analyst at Golder (a member of Williams Sale Partnership, or WSP), and a Master of Science candidate at Humboldt State University. What was your "Aha" moment? How has your "Aha" moment affected your career path? |
Meet Jay Metzger, GIS Manager at the Rhode Island Department of Health and NEURISA Immediate Past President. What was your "Aha" moment? How has your "Aha" moment affected your career path? |
Meet Jessi Echevarria, a Technical Consulting Coordinator at ESRI Boston and NEURISA's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) sub-committee leader. What was your "Aha" moment? How has your "Aha" moment affected your career path? | ![]() ![]() |
Meet Amanda Shoemaker, Peter O'Donnell, and Jay Guarneri, our April Mappy Hour contest winners. Amanda Shoemaker: GIS Professional What was your "Aha" moment? How has your "Aha" moment affected your career path? Peter O'Donnell: GIS Consultant What was your "Aha" moment? How has your "Aha" moment affected your career path? Jay Guarneri: GIS Administrator What was your "Aha" moment? How has your "Aha" moment affected your career path? |
Meet Ryan Norton, GIS Specialist for the Town of Foxborough, Massachusetts, and Webmaster for NEURISA. Click here to see how Ryan came to his GIS "Aha Moment." |