612
August 2015
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
PROFESSIONAL
INSIGHT
dent support given the relatively few applications that are
received for thousands of dollars in student scholarships
or the fact that employer networking events often have
more employers than students. I think ASPRS needn’t do
more, but simply be more vocal about what it already does,
especially at the national level.
Furthermore, ASPRS regions shoulder a huge amount
of student support. I could not ask for more regional sup-
port than I have been personally provided by the Heart-
land Region. I have been awarded with travel subsidies so
that I could go to serve nationally. I have presented on the
fieldwork I conduct overseas for our regional technical we-
binar series. My region even held a USGS-hosted student
training on the latest ArcGIS tools for lidar datasets. So
if my region is representative of the sort of resources that
students are able to draw upon, I think we do very well as
a Society.
Also, when we consider the channels of support avail-
able to us as student members, it can be easy to overlook
that a huge source of support can be our very own peers.
Through ASPRS and serving on the Student Advisory
Council, I have made friendships such that if these were
the only benefit to me, for all the value it has brought me,
it would far exceed the energy I have expended serving
the Society.
Are you confident about getting a job when you gradu-
ate? If so, why? If not, why not?
I certainly derive a great deal of confidence from the ser-
vice I have given to the Society and take every opportunity
to promote it. Perhaps for this reason, I happen to already
have a job—with Morrison-Shipley Engineers, a surveying
and civil engineering firm headquartered in Fort Smith,
Arkansas. There was no vacancy announcement for my
position. I contacted them directly based on the capacities
they seemed to be trying to build as service providers, and
I felt I had practical skills to offer to that end. Having ap-
proached my current employer this way, I feel gratified in
my position and much more invested in it, because I chose
it myself.
I credit the Student-Employer Meet & Greet (a network-
ing event the Student Advisory holds at almost every na-
tional conference), which I have moderated a few times,
for the particular insights that led me to solicit and be
hired onto this job. Jim Green of Optech once said during
a past SEMG event that many companies are not going
to promote that they have openings, but every company
is looking for someone who has fresh ideas to offer. Many
employers in our field are, in fact, actively recruiting, and
I understand that the geospatial technology industry is
experiencing a great deal of expansion. Active ASPRS
student members routinely speak to prospective employ-
ers, and when we approach them, they are typically unre-
served about telling us how to best distinguish ourselves
from other applicants and what competencies are most
desirable on the job market. I honestly do not think that
most of us—active ASPRS student members—worry much
about whether or not we are employable, but perhaps how
we might ensure that we select the most personally fulfill-
ing jobs from among those available. That, to me, speaks
to the confidence we have as job-seekers.
What are you most looking forward to at ASPRS and how
do you plan to stay involved?
Most immediately, I am eagerly awaiting the 2nd ASPRS
UAS Technical Demonstration and Symposium in Reno, a
regional initiative focusing on unmanned aircraft systems
that has taken off nationally. I think the event signals
growth for the Society, because for every ASPRS member
in attendance last October, there were two non-members.
I enjoyed seeing the test flights and the GeoCue workshop
was especially informative, so I look forward to returning.
Just to share a quick anecdote, at the UAS Reno event
last year, boarding the bus from the UAS test flight range,
I happened to sit next to a gentleman and strike up a con-
versation about what brought him, a non-ASPRS member
to the event. He was a GIS and IT manager for a major US
port authority investigating the latest UAS technologies.
We exchanged cards and it happened that I was visiting
that particular airport a few months later, and when I
reached out to him while in town, he provided a tour of the
control center of the airport. Not only did he demonstrate
the architecture of the most sophisticated geographic in-
formation system I had ever seen, but he also shared some
of interpersonal skills he has developed and relied upon as
a consequence of having such a great responsibility and
managing so many interests. To think, I had only come to
the UAS Mapping Reno event for its own sake, and this
was an outcome far beyond what I would have ever expect-
ed from being a student attendee.
Going forward, I believe that staying involved with AS-
PRS will be part of my professional routine. I will continue
to take part in the Lidar Division and ultimately acquire
ASPRS professional certification as a Lidar scientist when
the application becomes available. I will transition from
the Student Advisory Council to the Early Career Pro-
fessionals Council and lend a hand there. And certainly
not least of all, I look forward to witnessing the career
advancement of my peers and senior colleagues, and the
excitement of reconvening at future ASPRS national con-
ferences to share our successes from year to year.
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