Every so often there are conversations or situations that cause you to think back on events or how things were in the past and how you got to where you are. It can give you perspective to see how things have changed, how far you have come, make you think ‘what if,’ or simply enjoy a memory.

I have had a few conversations recently that led me to reflect on my education and career path. I recalled the progression from taking my first introduction to geographic information technology (GIT) course, to changing my major focus area, taking additional GIS courses and deciding to take a summer internship over a summer job in 2014.

On October 2nd, the Hudson Valley chapter of the Society for Conservation GIS (HV SCGIS) held our quarterly meeting at the Environmental Cooperative at the Vassar Barns. During the meeting, we took a hike to check out the work being done on the Preserve at Vassar. During the hike I had the opportunity to chat with a colleague who works at another land trust in the Hudson Valley. That colleague had also been my supervisor back in 2017. We were chatting about our current GIS and mobile data collection. I mentioned some challenges that I am working through, and they reminded me of where we were when we started working together.

I am approaching ten years of graduating from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) and I’m about seven months from being at Mohonk Preserve for ten years. When I started at the Preserve in May of 2015 as a seasonal employee, I was hired to monitor the property boundaries, and I initially only used basic tools. I was trained in boundary work during my internship with NYS Department of Conservation (DEC) Bureau of Real Property in the summer of 2014, and they monitored with a map, compass and measuring tape.

That was my approach at the Preserve until I came across a GPS unit in the closet where the boundary signs were stored. It was a Trimble Juno unit that had ArcPad installed on it, which was a mobile form of the GIS software ArcMap, which had I learned at SUNY ESF and used to produce maps at the Preserve. I thought that it would allow me to improve my boundary reports by collecting GPS points, in addition to annotating my reference maps and taking photos.

I used that methodology until a new supervisor encouraged the use of a mobile app. Cell phone GPS got within the range of accuracy of the GPS unit and the app was a bit more efficient to set up and easier for others to use. The data from the app did require some more processing before adding it to our dataset. From that point on, I have continued working to improve our data collection and reporting.

We are now back in the Arc (Esri) ecosystem, utilizing their desktop, online and mobile applications. I’m working to get more staff trained and using the apps so that the data is in the same format and accessible to all users, rather than saved on one person’s phone. We are also utilizing automation to pull the data from ArcGIS Online and populate our report forms. Our time to complete boundary monitoring reports has been cut by around half as compared to 2021, and that is with new seasonal staff.

This year we also started utilizing another Arc license that allows us to further integrate data collected by volunteers. ArcGIS Hub Premium allows us to add volunteers who participate in selected programs to submit and have access to data in our ArcGIS Online system. This has reduced duplicate reports and duplication of efforts. There have of course been challenges, but I am looking forward to continuing our progression.

Another series of conversations that led to something that I never would have thought of happening during my intro to GIT course. Back in September, several members of the Preserve’s staff attended the national land conservation conference. On the first day of the conference, I had the opportunity to chat with representatives from Esri who were tabling at the conference. I had a chance to describe the work we are doing at the Preserve, utilizing their software. This led to further conversations and coordination for me to participate as a presenter on a webinar on ArcGIS Hub Premium for nonprofit organizations.

I had 20 to 25 minutes to describe the Preserve and how we decided to utilize the software and preview our current setup. I have given presentations for local and regional groups, as well as at state conferences, but being part of a webinar put on by the company that produces the software I have been using in some capacity for over a decade and the work that I played a major role in, being used as an example of what can be done was something special.

A series of unanticipated events, from graduating a semester later than expected due to changing my major focus area and missing a prerequisite and being eligible for an internship during the summer of 2014 because I was returning for the fall semester, to having a series of interviews that resulted in my first post-college seasonal job in May 2015 that turned into a full-time job in January of 2016, have allowed me to advance my skills and opportunities to contribute to the region that I have always called home.

The path you take may not always be straightforward, or as expected, and you may be facing some challenges now, but where did you start from? How far have you come? Keep that in mind while you figure out where you are going.