GIS Day Heroes
These GIS Day participants are known for dedicating countless hours of time and innumerable resources to planning presentations and demonstrations that allow everyday people to experience the extraordinary power of GIS technology. They are our latest "GIS Day Heroes."
We hope the stories featured below will inspire you and your organization to become involved in this global educational mission and encourage you to join us as we celebrate on Wednesday, November 18, 2009.
Heather McAdam
GIS Day at Carleton University has always focused on two things: making sure that participants leave with increased knowledge of GIS technology and making the day as fun and exciting as possible for all attendees. As the number-one advocate for these goals, Heather McAdam led the GIS Day committee at the university every year, from when the first event was held in 1999 until her retirement earlier this year. Heather has organized numerous exciting activities including GPS demonstrations, map-folding demonstrations, and GIS Jeopardy. GIS Day at Carleton has been held in various locations across campus, increasing in size with each year. What started out as a small event in the library is now hosted in a 10,000-square-foot exhibition area in the University Centre—a clear indication that Heather successfully built up the event.
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Heather McAdam (right, former GIS coordinator from the Maps, Data & Government Information Centre at Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) with Kaila McTavish, a student from the Dept. of Geography and Environmental Studies at Carleton University.Heather was also responsible for creating a GIS Day culture at Carleton University. Staff, students, and faculty are all familiar with GIS Day. In any given year, they have had at least 20 geomatics student volunteers helping out with the celebration. This one-day event attracts not only participants from the Carleton University community but also local media and the general public. GIS Day at Carleton includes a GIS trade show that is attended by many organizations such as federal government departments, academic scholars, and local private companies. The event also includes displays, guest speakers, and interactive demonstrations of GIS technology. In addition, the event gives hundreds of students from various local high schools an introduction to geomatics.
"The 10th anniversary of GIS Day at Carleton is a true testament to all the hard work Heather has put in over the years," says her colleague, Joel Rivard. Before retiring, she introduced GIS to Carleton University, her community, local television and radio stations, and many publications throughout the Ottawa region.
See volunteers from GIS Day 2006.
- Mary Jo Black Enderby
- Tips from a GIS Day Veteran in Forsyth County, Georgia
Ever since Mary Jo Black Enderby jumped on board in 2005, GIS Day in Forsyth County, Georgia, has never been the same. Her first experience with GIS technology in 1993 led her back to graduate school for ArcInfo instruction and, eventually, into her current job as a GIS Specialist. There, she was motivated by her boss, Forsyth County's GIS director, John Kilgore, who had already celebrated GIS Day for six years. Kilgore was equally impressed with her enthusiasm, stating "As a role model, she is inclined to show her courage and passion for geography and GIS. She inspires young people to become involved in doing something positive for their communities. She is the model of 'learning is fun' with her ability to use unusual training materials and provide a learning experience that is unmatched."
Enderby's most valuable GIS Day planning advice is this: Determine your intended audience. Ask yourself, "Who am I trying to reach and what am I trying to tell them about GIS?" For example, last year GIS Day participants focused on Forsyth County seniors and spent time with them at the county-run senior center.
Mary Jo Black Enderby with her son Ian prepare for GIS Day fun.
Another key to Enderby's GIS Day planning success is to get her entire department involved so everyone has a chance to contribute. "I work with an amazing group of individuals whose talent and creativity have made GIS Day more exciting every year, and a group effort means that tasks can be assigned across the board so no individual's schedule is unduly impacted. We also seem to start planning earlier and earlier every year. We have a small budget, and preplanning can also mean saving." Enderby gets creative by buying things on sale after holidays that she can use in her geocaches and as prizes. The group also encourages its vendors to donate items that can be used in raffles or as giveaways.
Where does she find all her inspiration? "Everywhere I look, I see ideas that I can use for GIS Day," says Enderby. One of her favorite resources is the Materials page which is filled with suggestions and ready-made materials that make planning easier. Her colleagues also provide all sorts of good ideas and creative activities.
In just three years, she has seen significant benefits to the county from GIS Day. For example, the senior center manager saw a presentation on routing and subsequently has been working with the county’s GIS department to determine the best routes for meals-on-wheels and elder pickup services. With gas prices rising every day, this is an enormous benefit to the county.
A self-proclaimed "Olympics junkie," this year Enderby has been enthused by the excitement and spectacle of the Games, which she will try to incorporate into her GIS Day celebration. Her department will also continue to focus on employees by holding a GIS Day executive session with local county directors as well as reach out to home-schooled and preschool students who are not part of the public school system. But mostly, what she is looking forward to is the fun—"Oh, and the cake." - Alicia Tapia—Traveling the World on GIS Day
- If you work for the City of Carson, in Carson, California, and are planning your next vacation, it might be a good idea to make a stop and visit Alicia Tapia's Traveling the World with the City of Carson GIS Day 2006 display before deciding on your final destination.
About seven years ago, Tapia, who has worked for the city of Carson since 1985, started asking fellow employees where they were going on vacation and sent them off with the simple request to "Send me a postcard!" Word spread and 200 plus postcards later, Tapia's collection spans the globe and represents all the continents except Antarctica.
Alicia Tapia proudly holds up the latest stack of postcards she has received.
While Tapia has collected several postcards herself, she enjoys traveling the world vicariously through her co-workers. GIS Day 2006 was the first time Tapia's collection was organized into a public display, allowing her colleagues to join her on her postcard tour of the world. "I love my postcard collection!" proclaimed Tapia, "This was a great way to show it off. I made everyone in city hall come see it!"
Commenting on the popularity of the project, Colleague Barry Waite remarked, "People liked it so much that Alicia's stack of postcards just keeps growing. It is actually encouraging all of us to travel more and consider unique and sometimes remote destinations."
Tapia looks forward to adding more postcards to her collection each year, so if you are a Carson employee, be sure to send her a postcard from your next vacation escape. - Dietrich Knauner—College Bound Senior Applies His Talents to GIS Day in Montrose, N.Y.
- In the midst of the mad dash to submit college applications in fall 2006, Dietrich Knauner, a senior at Hendrick Hudson High School in Montrose, New York, figured adding one more thing to his busy to-do list would not be a problem. Inspired by a Penn State University open house he attended earlier in the year, Knauner not only decided that he wanted to major in Geography/GIS in college, he also decided to plan a GIS Day 2006 event for his school to help make other students aware of the amazing technology he had discovered.
Knauner began tackling his objective by contacting his county's GIS Department to gather ideas on what to present to the students. In an interesting twist of fate the department's Chief Information Officer, Dr. Norman Jacknis, turned out to be a resident in Knauner's school district with his daughter a junior at the same high school. Jacknis put Knauner in touch with additional staff at the county who decided to join Knauner's effort.
GIS Day Hero, senior Dietrich Knauner, shows students an aerial map of their school during his GIS Day presentation.
Knauner's second event-planning step found him meeting with the social studies and science teachers in the district. He reached out specifically to his former seventh grade science teacher, Sean Bugara, who was also his Boy Scout, Eagle Scout Sponsor. Despite his busy schedule and not knowing quite what to expect, Bugara agreed to have Knauner come into his classes to celebrate GIS Day.
On November 16th, Knauner gave his GIS Day presentation to five of Bugara's classes, a total of approximately 120 students. To introduce the students to Geography Awareness Week and GIS, Knauner first gave a PowerPoint presentation tailored to natural science applications of GIS such as tracking annual precipitation in New York state, tracking avalanches, and an in-depth sea turtle study in Bermuda. He talked to the students about the way GIS enables you to study and analyze almost anything that can be put on a map, whether related to science or social studies.
County GIS Specialists, Cynthia Louie and Ilir Toto gave the second part of the presentation explaining the numerous maps they had created specifically for the event. Of particular interest to the students were the aerial blow-ups of the schools in the district, especially the map of their own school grounds. They explained the maps they brought, including a map of the county's hurricane study, an open-space study, and a study showing where gas prices are the cheapest in the county.
T-shirts and inflatable globes added to the fun as well as a delicious GIS Day cake that Dietrich's mom had made. As the students left the class, they were given several foil-covered chocolate globes. All of these special touches helped to make learning about GIS fun. By the end of the day, some of the other middle school teachers and the school's principal had stopped by to see what all the GIS excitement was about!
"All of Dietrich's talents and strengths came together during his GIS Day presentation," praises one of his teachers in a college recommendation letter. "I saw him emerge as an inspirational leader, using his skills to plan, create, and carry out the project to a wonderful end product. My students loved his presentation and gained much appreciation for the real-life application of map skills."
Good luck with your college applications, Dietrich. Your passion and drive are proof that you are well on your way to your studies and future career in GIS. - Ronnie Caluza
- Twenty-five-year-old Ronnie Caluza, a December 2005 graduating senior at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS), majoring in geography, decided it was time for him to accomplish something as a leader and "take charge," so he took on the tremendous undertaking of organizing GIS Day 2005 at his university.
Having been chosen as one of the 2004 ESRI User Conference student assistants, Caluza was no stranger to the hard work it takes to put on a large conference. Incorporating the lessons learned at the User Conference, Caluza started his GIS Day plans early and met with his friends and colleagues over the summer to see if they could participate in GIS Day by displaying projects or work done through their internships and connections to local GIS professionals.
Ronnie Caluza, a graduating senior from California State University, posing with the geography technology display he designed for his Geography Awareness Week celebrations.
Many of his friends provided a variety of display booths and support from local GIS consulting firms and public agencies. Local UPN 31 weatherman Tom Loffman, a geography graduate from the University of California, Berkeley, and former CSUS meteorology professor, attended the event as a guest speaker.
Event coordination required keeping track of many details and included tackling the issues of borrowing equipment (projectors and screens) from the university media services group, working with the campus librarian to design special Geography Awareness Week displays, and coordinating parking passes for GIS Day guests.
Caluza helped publicize and build his GIS Day team by visiting all the junior-level geography classes (a required course for all geography majors) to announce GIS Day and recruit additional volunteers. He also worked with one of his professors to make participation mandatory for students in the Advanced GIS class.
Caluza's GIS Day event was a huge success. California Department of Conservation employee and GIS Day exhibitor Virginia Humphreys commented on the overall success of the event saying, "One of things that we really enjoy about our job is outreach—anything that we can do to help educate the public on what we do with respect to land use is great. GIS Day at CSUS provided the perfect forum for accomplishing this goal." - Isla Yap
- Funded through grants from the U.S. Department of Labor, Education, and Agriculture, the Women in Technology (WIT) Project is the first workforce development project of its kind to encourage women and girls to pursue math, science, engineering, and technology education and careers.
In an effort to attain these goals, Isla Yap, WIT project manager and Project EAST (Environmental and Spatial Technology) coordinator, and her WIT team decided to sponsor the first Maui GIS Day event. Open to the public, the event took place on a Saturday afternoon in November in the middle of the Queen Kaahumanu Shopping Center.
Computer specialists from the Pacific Disaster Center, as well as Project EAST students from five Maui high schools (Baldwin, Kihei, King Kekaulike, Lahainaluna, and Maui), were on hand to talk about and demonstrate their respective GIS projects.
The Maui Digital Bus, an educational mobile science and technology lab operated by technology firm Akimeka LLC. The bus features digital cameras and microscopes, water-testing equipment, GPS devices, and laptop computers.
The Project EAST students were proud to share information about one of their current projects, which includes collaborating with the Maui Police Department to map all of the defibrillators, hiking trails (where accidents frequently occur), emergency shelters, and local surf spots on the island. The information collected by the students will be entered into the island's existing 911 GIS system and will eventually have the potential to help all Maui residents.
The Maui Digital Bus, an educational mobile science and technology lab operated by local information technology firm Akimeka LLC, was also on display. The bus, which features $100,000 worth of digital cameras and microscopes, water-testing equipment, global positioning system devices, and laptop computers, was a huge hit with the visiting students.
Members of the local 4-H Ladybug Club were on hand to help with the keiki (kids') table, which included a GIS Day coloring station, name tags, pencils, and stickers.
Commenting on the uniqueness of the island celebration, Yap, who spearheaded the GIS Day event, says, "I had the event at our local mall because it is the gathering place on the island. I believe in most places a mall wouldn't work, but on Maui it does. Our GIS Day celebration allowed Maui residents to see firsthand how this innovative technology will drive more than 10 million jobs over the next 10 years, as well as how important it is to our daily lives."
Nominations
To submit your nominations for the next GIS Day hero story, please contact the GIS Day Coordinator at gisday@esri.com.
Who knows, the next one may be you!