Hello!

My name is Lama and I am currently in my fourth year of my Environmental Science degree with a certificate in GIS. I’ve been taking GIS classes since the end of my second year and have loved it ever since, which is partially why I am pursuing a certificate in it.

This semester I had the opportunity to start working at my university’s GIS centre which entailed me helping students with their labs, assignments and projects. We had students from various undergraduate and graduate programs show up asking for help with finding and analysing data, conceptualizing research questions, or solving lab assignments. In most cases, I was able to explain or provide the help needed. However, there were certain questions that left me absolutely stumped especially when it came to scenario based questions outside my program area. So, I ended up researching various solutions and concepts to help these students and provide them with the answers they needed. At the same time, I was able to learn new concepts and functions in GIS that I was not exposed to previously. The more students I helped, the more opportunities I had to learn new things and solidify old concepts. This extends beyond just ArcMap, as I also have the chance to work with ArcGIS Pro. As ArcGIS Pro is still being introduced in classes, I will have the chance to create how-to documents that students can refer to for help when operating the software. All in all, I am thankful for this chance to help others with GIS and learn at the same time.

I’m excited to see what else I will learn during my time and  hopefully share some of that knowledge with you all!