From Nobody to GIS: How I Found My Path to Environmental Data Analytics

From Nobody to GIS: How I Found My Path to Environmental Data Analytics The Early Years I graduated from high school in 2013 with no idea what I wanted to do. At the time, I did not take anything seriously, and money did not matter to me. Over the next four years, I bounced between jobs in different fields. I worked at Criterion, Burger King, CiCi's, Subway, Xerox, Hamilton Relay, ResCare, Sycamore Run, 84 Lumber, Chat and Chew Restaurant, Rocky Gap Signatures Restaurant, American Woodmark, WebstaurantStore, and even a hot dog stand. I experienced many different industries at the ground level, seeing firsthand what some of the worst work positions are like. I hated all of them. None of these industries mattered much at a grand scale. Each lacked a bigger picture that would matter to me long-term. I enrolled in college twice. The first time, I officially withdrew from general studies. The second time, I was in business administration and just stopped going to class. I worked to pay for concerts, events, and travel. Nothing more. But underneath all of that, something else was building. What Actually Caught My Attention Outside of work and school, I had become obsessed with climate change, fractals, research papers, data, waste pollution, loss of wildlife, fisheries and marine life, coral reefs, and mycorrhizal networks. I read everything I could get my hands on. How could I turn this into a career when my interests were familiar but broad? Then I became pregnant and had my daughter in 2017. I worked at American Woodmark for a few months and then WebstaurantStore for three years. I was waiting. Waiting for my daughter to become school age. Waiting for the right moment to go back. That moment came in January 2022. The Pivot At 26 years old, I went back to community college at Potomac State. I had spent years in warehouses, packing and picking orders, flexing for material handling, handling quality control audits, and reconciling spreadsheets against physical stock. It paid the bills, but I knew I could not spend the rest of my life in labor, working odd shifts without growth opportunity. I needed something better. I went to Potomac State for a year straight to get my Associate of Arts in Wildlife and Fisheries. I wanted to do Forestry, but there were no Forestry programs nearby, so Wildlife and Fisheries was the closest I could get. I started volunteering with the Central Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative and joined forestry clubs to get as close to the work as I could. I also co-founded a tree care business, Coherence Tree Care LLC, where I supported my husband, who is an arborist, with residential work. That gave me hands-on experience and a taste of running my own operation. Finally, while I was in community college, I became a math tutor. I discovered I liked breaking down complex problems into clear steps for people. That patience and clarity would serve me well later. From there, I transferred to Frostburg State University, still chasing Wildlife and Fisheries. Finding GIS I attended Frostburg for two years straight, working toward my BSc. I quickly realized I hated memorizing the massive amount of information required for Biology courses like Genetics, Animal Physiology, and Mammalogy. Additionally, the courses felt shallow in terms of real-world applications, staying mostly at a theoretical level. At the time, I did not understand why, although now it makes sense. So, I pivoted my major to Environmental Science. This let me enroll in more Earth Science, Geography, Biogeography, Geographic Information Systems, and Remote Sensing courses. Each of these courses had its benefits, but none of them fully addressed the interdisciplinary, hands-on approach I was looking for. I wanted to combine biology, ecology, geography, geospatial technology, Python, RStudio, big data, and technical tools to address accelerating issues in Climate Change. For the first time, I could see an overall picture of the career I wanted that felt right. I graduated with my BSc and walked straight into a full-time GIS position. The State Job I took a position as a Transportation GIS Technician for the West Virginia Division of Highways. I digitized maps, built asset spreadsheets, researched road history, and developed reports with suggestions for road changes based on historical commissioners' orders, straight line diagrams, field notes, maps, and as-builts. I created standardized maps for each report and focused on explaining GIS concepts to engineers and colleagues unfamiliar with the technology. I also designed a mobile map package and Survey123 workflows for potential interns that could be hired the following summer to locate unmapped culverts and other assets. But five months later, I left. I was dealing with a high-risk pregnancy, and I could see there was very little room for career growth where I was. Every other person had a department, whereas I was put under reporting because nobody knew what to categorize GIS as. Reporting had no idea what to have me work on in terms of transportation projects. Essentially, their idea of support was creating spreadsheets for unmapped assets in historical records, which would take many years to complete. It was the right decision for me and my family, even though it meant stepping away from the career I had just started building. Where I Am Now Now I am a stay-at-home mom of two, homeschooling my nine-year-old and taking graduate courses one at a time. I applied to Unity's MSc in Environmental Data Analytics and was accepted. I am waiting to start and continue learning Python as my initial language. I am not working full-time right now, but I am still building the interdisciplinary skillset I dream of when I have free time. Freelancing when I can. Learning when I can. Writing about it all along the way. What's Next I am not sure exactly where this path ends, but I know I will keep moving forward. I am open to: Freelance open-source GIS and data work Research support Connecting with other late bloomers & people figuring it out Let's Connect If you are also learning Python automation, RStudio, GIS, data analytics, machine learning, or environmental science, say hi. I'd love to connect. Thanks for reading my story. I'll be writing more about my journey, things I'm learning, and projects I'm working on. Stay tuned.