February 2017 GeoMentor Spotlight: Ryan Mello

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02-03-2017 08:26 AM
JoleneKeen1
Occasional Contributor II
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February 2017 GeoMentor Spotlight:

Ryan Mello: GIS Project Manager for the Maryland Critical Area Remapping Project 

What was your favorite class in K-12? Middle school science, we were finally able to do real experiments, and were able to learn about how the earth works.

How did you first learn about and/or use GIS? During my fourth year of undergrad I had just changed my major from Education to Geography and I took a required course and I have been using GIS ever since.

Name one thing you love about GIS and/or geography (I know, just one!): GIS and Geography both allow us to better understand pretty much everything around us. Whether it is why the clouds look like that or where should we put a new grocery store. Understanding how the world works and to know that we can analyze data to better solve problems is incredible. Oh and I love maps.



Why did you want to volunteer as a GeoMentor? I initially went to college for Education to teach Middle School Science, however in my last year I was loving my geography courses and dreading the education ones. So I changed majors and although I do not regret it, I still like the idea of teaching and being a GeoMentor seems like a good way to do both.

What kind of GeoMentor volunteer opportunity and experience are you looking for? I have many friends who are teachers and they are either not aware of the resources out there for them to use GIS in the classroom, or they are already constrained to their curriculum. If I am not able to actually teach, I would like to be able to reach out to teachers so they know about these resources.

If someone asked you why they should learn about GIS and/or geography, how would you respond in one sentence? You live in this world, and you should know as much as you can about it.

Email address: Rgmello@salisbury.edu
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-mello-gisp-04466b86
Twitter username: @RyanM_GISP

Interested in being featured? Go here for more information.

We are excited to learn more about you! 

Questions? Email geomentors@aag.org.