GIS Portfolio: Ross Wygmans

GIS Day is an annual global event dedicated to celebrating and sharing Geographic Information Systems with the world. Since GIS Day isn't until November 16 this year, I decided to create my own event. The audience for this event will be my close friends and family because I oftentimes have difficulty concisely explaining what GIS is to them. This will be an informal gathering hosted at my friend Michael's house since he has a huge projector screen set up in his living room. This event would start off with an introductory video of a TEDx talk by Dan Scollon explaining what GIS is and how it is revolutionizing the way we view the world. I would then show some of my own examples of some really cool applications of GIS and explain some of the types of questions that GIS can help us solve. Finally, I would serve an amazing taco dinner! 

Over the last two weeks, we have been learning more about the various industries using GIS and exploring specific positions within some of these industries. It is inspiring and exciting to see how GIS is utilized by such a wide range of industries, from natural resources to energy to defense. I spent some time looking for GIS opportunities within the forestry/conservation sector since this is the direction that I hope to take my career. I came across an Enterprise GIS Specialist position with F&W Forestry Services, an international forest management and consulting firm, that I decided to apply for. I may not be entirely qualified for this position, but I figured it never hurts to "toss my name in the hat". Besides, I previously worked for F&W as a Field Forester after completing my undergraduate degree in forestry, so perhaps this will give me a slight edge over other applicants with more GIS experience than me. 

My internship this semester is being merged into my current Environmental Specialist position with Alachua County's Office of Land Conservation. Since GIS is used regularly within our program to produce maps and perform basic geospatial analysis, completing my GIS internship through my employer was the logical choice for me. I'm grateful that our Director and Program Manager were so supportive in facilitating me in this arrangement.  One of the main projects I will be working on throughout this internship is creating an updated feature class of all the properties that have been nominated for acquisition through our conservation program, Alachua County Forever, since the program's inception in 2000. One of the previous Program Managers was maintaining a database with this information until 2015, but his database was so convoluted and cobbled together that once he left the program, no one was able to decipher how to use the database. I will need to dig through a lot of data a...