Online GIST Education Opportunities at Monroe Community College

CatherineDuBreck · ‎05-31-2024

Introduction

Are you thinking of expanding your GIS knowledge and taking some college courses to learn new skills or brush up on old? Monroe Community College in Rochester, NY is the place for you!

MCC has a handful of GIST programs including a 9-credit micro-credential, a 24-credit certificate, and a new two-year Associates in Applied Sciences (A.A.S.) degree. These programs are stackable, meaning you can pursue just one on its own, you can earn the micro-credential with the certificate, or the certificate and micro-credential with the A.A.S. degree. All courses are offered online/remote and fit the working professional’s schedule. Check out this Esri User Story on how MCC is modernizing GIS education with its new microcredential to ensure workplace success and learn more about the programs below:

Courses and Student Opportunities

All courses are offered online or remote. Fall classes include Digital Earth which is a basic intro to GIS course, Intro to Remote Sensing which focuses on the application and analysis of satellite and drone imagery using ArcGIS Pro, Cartography which is the perfect opportunity for folks looking to learn how to design better-looking maps, and the new GIS Crime Dashboards course, developed with and geared towards the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. GIS Crime Dashboards was offered for the first time in this past Spring 2024 semester. Also offered Geospatial Data Acquisition and Management, where students learn about geodatabase design and creation, data management, and more.

Spring classes include Spatial Analysis and GIS (which covers more advanced geospatial analysis topics and methods), Web Mapping (where students learn about web-based GIS and tools like ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS StoryMaps, and ArcGIS FieldMaps among others), and Intro to Geospatial Programming (where students learn more about geoprocessing tools and Python for ArcGIS Pro). Digital Earth and GIS Crime Dashboards are also offered in the Spring.

Another course offered only in the Spring semesters, is Capstone in Geospatial Technology. This course is a great experience for students of all GIS skills/backgrounds with its virtual internship component. Virtual partners range from local (NY) to national (USA) to even global! Beyond an internship, the GIST program has seen a number of graduates go on to employment in the field as well.

Check out some of the organizations and companies the GIST program partners with for interns and employment!

Saving Africa's Nature in Tanzania: One of the program's new internship partners is Saving Africa's Nature (SANA) in Tanzania. This project will unite the GIS expertise of MCC students with the mission of revolutionizing conservation efforts. This role extends to creating vivid story maps that unveil the relationships between the community and wildlife around in Gongo community, shedding light on reforestation initiatives and the broader ecological impact. As SANA expands its reach across various conservation areas, student ArcGIS maps will serve as invaluable tools, offering detailed insights for informed decision-making and resource distribution, fostering a future where conservation thrives on data-driven strategies and passionate student involvement.

For more info on SANA, visit http://www.karibusana.com/

University of Maine: MCC's GIST program also partners with the University of Maine's Center for Advanced Forestry Systems (CAFS), Center for Research on Sustainable Forests, School of Forest Resources, and Barbara Wheatland Geospatial Lab.

In 2022, two MCC GIST students spent the summer working with a research team from the Wheatland Geospatial Lab, helping document, identify, and classify tree species within the state of Maine using geospatial and AI machine-learning prediction tools. Check out the ArcGIS StoryMaps below for more information on these projects:

In Spring 2023, another MCC GIST student spent the semester working to build on this existing research and built a Python-based QGIS plugin for efficient cloud removal from Sentinel2 imagery using machine learning.

Bochum University of Applied Sciences: Another new virtual internship partner is Bochum University of Applied Sciences in Germany. This project revolves around FAIR and open research in the marine and freshwater domain. In the context of the EU-funded AquaINFRA project, the student will get acquainted with the project's Virtual Research Environment (VRE) and solve at least one analytical task provided by the project partners. The focus of this project is on testing the feasibility of the VRE and documenting the conducted steps. Student skills required include spatial analysis, Python, technical writing, and more.

Mapping Club

In addition to programs, there is also MCC's Mapping Club that meets weekly over Zoom and hosts events each semester. The Mapping Club is a chapter of YouthMappers event hosted every semester is called a mapathon. It's an easy and fun way to volunteer and give back to the global community by digitizing buildings/roads in unmapped areas in the world. Students get to practice using open-source mapping software while supporting humanitarian mapping in high-priority areas.

The club has also hosted guest speakers including a talk on Mapillary, an "Ask Me Anything" event with a GIS professional and MCC GIST program graduate (me!), and a Geography Awareness Week event with Esri's Dr. Joseph Kerski. Dr. Kerski spoke about Modern GIS Tools to Explore Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The talk was followed by a workshop about Strategies on Finding Data. Check out these links from Dr. Kerski's visit to MCC!
A tour of Monroe Community College
Teaching Equity with Spatial Thinking and GIS (part 1)
Teaching Equity with Spatial Thinking and GIS (part 2)
Teaching Equity with Spatial Thinking and GIS (part 3)
How to use Geospatial Data in a GIS - Workshop (Part 1)
How to use Geospatial Data in a GIS - Workshop (Part 2)
How to use Geospatial Data in a GIS - Workshop (Part 3)
How to use Geospatial Data in a GIS - Workshop (Part 4)

Conclusion

MCC's GIST programs have something for everyone and you can check out this ArcGIS StoryMap to see where MCC's GIST Programs can take you: Get the GIST! An overview of Monroe Community College's GIST program and recent graduate spotlight.

I have a BA and MSc in Geography and have been enrolled as a part-time student in MCC's GIST programs since 2018. The courses at MCC taught me skills and concepts that I did not have the chance to learn through my previous programs at the time.

I first completed the certificate in 2020, then the micro-credential in 2023, and am currently working on wrapping up the A.A.S. degree (expected 2025). I have taken 1-2 classes per semester and many classes from my undergraduate geography program transferred over to MCC. I have participated in the Mapping Club in the past as Treasurer, mapathon participant, and event guest speaker. My Capstone in Technology virtual internship was with Fundacion Universitaria Tecnologico Comfenalco (FUTCO) in Cartagena, Colombia and involved using remote sensing and satellite imagery to explore changes in mangrove forests in Cartagena. This project built on a hybrid-study abroad program I was selected to be part of as a student at MCC involving creating an ArcGIS Collector app in Spanish on water quality data and traveling to Cartagena to test the app with FUTCO students in person. We also led a humanitarian mapathon in Spanish.

Additionally, I firmly believe my enrollment as a student in MCC's GIST programs and courses helped prepare me to pass the GISP exam (especially Geospatial Data Acquisition and Management which I was taking the same semester I took the GISP exam).

If you have any questions or would like to learn more, please feel free to reach out to me in a message or comment below, connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cdubreck/ or send me an email at cdubreck001@monroecc.edu