By: Rhea Kollias

Hi everyone, and greetings from London Ontario! Welcome to my first ECCE blog post! Today I’m going to briefly introduce myself and outline my experience and how I got involved in the world of GIS. 

It all started in the fall of 2023 when I was first introduced to GIS through Western’s introductory GIS course: GIS 1. I didn’t even know what GIS was and only took this course because it was mandatory for my specialization in Commercial Aviation Management. I’m not going to say my future plans all fell into place when I took this course, but if I hadn’t taken it then I wouldn’t be where I am today. 

I had been pursuing a business degree (BMOS) specializing in Aviation Management and got too far into the program to change as I realized that’s not what I really wanted to end up doing. I don’t mind the courses but not the way I love GIS and resonate with everything about it. 

Since I didn’t click with studying business, I kept trying to add things onto my degree and explore different areas in order to figure out what I actually wanted to do. For example, I spent 2 years as a Computer Science major. I finished all the first and second year major requirements before choosing to pursue Data Science instead because it complements GIS, and it’s been really cool to see how the skills build on each other. However, I still hone the skills learned from my time as a Computer Science major. It took me a while to figure out the right path but everything still taught me something and I’ve developed a strong interdisciplinary background.

I am entering my last year of university, and I had many major changes over the years. I thought that your major really defined who you are and what possibilities are available, and I wanted to keep switching in order to make sure I’d be working a job where I’ll actually be happy in the future. I realized that’s not the case and it’s not the end of the world that I found out about GIS too late, I can still pursue it without feeling behind. 

So finally I am confident in my pathway. While I’m graduating next year with a Business degree specializing in Aviation, which is what I initially came to Western for, I will have two certificates to go along with it, in Data Science and GIS. And come September 2027, I hope to do my Masters in GIS at Western and am doing everything I can right now to secure that route. I’m thinking about a thesis that could incorporate everything I’ve learned from different departments.

In my journey to become more involved in GIS, I am very grateful to have been able to secure a research internship in the GIS department in the summer of 2024. This is what really set things in motion and gave me confidence that I really could build a career and future in GIS even if I wasn’t following the traditional path.

I’m still doing as much as I can to involve myself in the world of GIS, even though I am enrolled in the certificate program and not the major as I would have liked. But I hopefully have the Masters to look forward to! I also began looking for extracurricular opportunities as well. Now I’m an Ecce associate, which I wish I had found out about sooner, as it has introduced me to many opportunities. I enjoyed volunteering at GIS days last November, taking part in the App challenge, meetings, obtaining invaluable hints, such as how valuable a portfolio is (and it’s in the works). I also met more people in GIS through my school’s Geography People’s Society, where I was VP of Communications for a year (fall 2023 – winter 2024), and that’s how I met the professor I did my internship under – at a pancake breakfast! Looking back, it’s funny how one required course and a few people I met ended up completely changing my career trajectory.

This summer, I’m working as a GIS Research Assistant in a lab at my university, contributing to a variety of research projects. I’ll share more in a separate post once my summer term comes to an end! Fun fact – I’m actually writing this right now with ArcGIS open in the background as I’m waiting for my raster of satellite imagery of London, Ontario to finish clipping. My favourite projects are the ones that use my Data Science, Computer Science AND GIS background. The most amazing things I’ve learned have been in that lab which I have been involved with for 2 years now. Another summer event was an Esri course, which I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to do from being an ECCE associate, which I will also go into more detail about in my second post – coming soon!

This upcoming term, I am very excited for the courses I will be taking, especially deep learning and its applications in computer vision, remote sensing, and reinforcement learning. I love that these courses all connect back to GIS in different ways and that they fit perfectly with the direction I want to take in GIS. They build on the research I’m doing this summer and what I’ve learned via my courses, building on my current skillset and developing skills for future projects. It all excites me so much!