She Was Already Working in GIS. Why Go Back for a Master’s?

What does a career in GIS really look like—and how can graduate education help you grow in a field that’s constantly evolving? In this episode of UMBC Mic’d Up, host Dennise Cardona, M.A. '23, talks with Meghan Arnold, a current student in UMBC’s Geographic Information Systems master’s program and a GIS technician working in local government. 

Meghan shares how she uses GIS to map and maintain critical storm water infrastructure, how skills from the classroom have translated directly to projects at work, and why communicating complex geographic data to non-GIS audiences is just as important as creating the maps themselves. She also discusses balancing graduate school with a full-time career, the flexibility she has found in the program, and her long-term goal of becoming a GIS manager. 

Tune in for a student’s perspective on the real-world impact of GIS—and why this growing field is about much more than maps. 

Learn More: https://professionalprograms.umbc.edu/geographic-information-systems/

Transcript

Dennise Cardona  00:00:00  
Hey everyone! Thanks for tuning into this episode of UMBC Mic'd Up Podcast. I am Dennise Cardona, your host, and today I'm joined by Meghan Arnold. She is a current student in our Geographic Information Systems Master's program. Megan is so wonderful to have you here with us today.

Meghan  00:00:18  
Thank you. It's wonderful to be here.

Dennise Cardona  00:00:20  
So, Megan, can you share a little bit about what motivated you to choose the UMBC GIS Masters Program specifically, and what aspects of the program attracted you to it?

Meghan  00:00:33  
Sure. So, I'm a UMBC undergraduate alum. I graduated in 2016 through Geography and Environmental Systems got a certificate in GIS and have been working since in the GIS industry. And last year we had a new colleague start who was also a UMBC alum, and we heard about the MPS program at UMBC, and we both decided we wanted to go for it, get some learning experience, and went to an info session, and that was that.

Dennise Cardona  00:01:12  
And here you are.

Meghan  00:01:14  
Yeah.

Dennise Cardona  00:01:15  
So you mentioned you're already working in the GIS field. Can you talk a little bit about maybe how the experience that you're having right now in the program is contributing to your professional growth and your skill development within this field.

Meghan  00:01:30  
Sure. So I mean, so much because GIS is-it's rapidly evolving. There's always new technology, new tools being released. So for me, I really enjoy trying to stay on top of those and continue learning. And joining the grad program has been an integral part of that because it it allows me to see those new tools and practice them in a lab setting, and be able to apply them at work.

Dennise Cardona  00:02:06  
Great. Can you talk a little bit about what it is that you do at work? Like, what kind of a position is it?

Meghan  00:02:11  
Yeah, I'm a GIS technician. My formal title: I work for local government, so I'm an engineering support technician is the long form name, but we call ourselves GIS technicians. So I, my day to day is I work for the stormwater management division, and I help maintain and map stormwater infrastructure data. So it's a lot of things that people don't necessarily notice in day to day, but if you see a storm drain along a road or you know a pond or anything like that, it's we've probably got it mapped. So that's that's a lot of what I do.

Dennise Cardona  00:02:56  
Yeah, and super important and critical to infrastructure and to lives. Absolutely, especially I. Gosh, this summer has been kind of wild weather in the Mid-Atlantic region. So I hear that even today it's been kind of or there's some kind of storm moving through. So it's at the top.

Meghan  00:03:16  
Yeah, there's always something, always a rain event. We call it job security.

Dennise Cardona  00:03:21  
So when the rain jobs come, it's like yes. So when you're you're working in your field right now, you heard about the GIS program. What was it that motivated you to get to to want to pursue your master's? Is this something that you see that in your role or in maybe future roles that you want to that you have you know you're aspiring to that. You see that a master's is a critical component to that, or can be helpful in some way.

Meghan  00:03:49  
It's funny. I didn't think so until I started learning more about the program, and when I went to the first information session, and we learned about different projects and class coursework that the program has. I was like, "Oh, this actually like applies to our day to day. So that kind of changed my perspective a little bit. I hadn't originally intended on getting a master's degree, but I think it's so far it's been really valuable. I've only I'm two semesters in, and I've learned so much in these past two semesters.

Dennise Cardona  00:04:31  
Yeah, that's great. So speaking of the classes that you've taken so far, can you highlight a particular project or coursework that you found particularly valuable in preparing you for your career that you're in right now in GIS.

Meghan  00:04:48  
One project we worked on in it was actually my very first class was basically creating a set of maps and writing a report that communicates. In a way to a non-GIS audience, and effectively communicating what the maps mean and how those maps could basically help inform decision making, and that's very relevant to my job. That's a lot of what we do day to day is creating mapping products that are passed on to management, and they use those maps to help make decisions. So we want to make sure that we're communicating effectively. It's more than just making a map and handing it to somebody. It's the communication along with it to explain it. So that came in really handy. We had a project that came up last minute at work that involved a grant that we needed we were going to spend, and we needed to basically create a set of maps to help determine where we would like to spend that money, where in the county, and I don't think I mentioned I work for Howard County, but basically to help prioritize where to use this money, and having that school project, having that experience really helped me to present that information to our supervisors and help make a decision.

Dennise Cardona  00:06:20  
Yeah, that's such a skill. I call it a human skill instead of a soft skill because it's really it's a human skill to be able to take something that could be complex or not understood by audiences, like you said, who are non-they're not like in this industry. They're non-GIS, but they GIS, but they need to understand it, and so to be able to break down complex information like this is such a critical skill, and it helps. I would imagine it helps you to show up to what you are doing and to your clients with really adding that value to be able to help them inform their thinking, and they might have even not thought about things that you bring to their attention simply by, and I say simply, and I, I don't mean that in a simple, simple way, but by explaining something that they might not even have thought about.

Meghan  00:07:13  
Yeah, and that's, I mean, that's something I'm really passionate about. Is that that component, that human component, like you said, is so important, and it's all part of the process of using all this. We have all this data, we have all these maps, we have so much information, and taking that and translating it into a way that it can be used effectively.

Dennise Cardona  00:07:36  
Now, as someone that's currently enrolled in this program, could you talk about maybe any reservations that you might have had before enrolling and attending your first course, and how that perspective has evolved since you've been taking? Now you're in your third semester. How has that changed or evolved?

Meghan  00:07:58  
It's definitely evolved. I was the biggest thing was deciding how to balance my time between working full time and taking classes, and I was definitely worried about that. And so far, it's been very manageable, and the classes are offered at times like they're offered in the evening, so I'm able to go to work and then attend class. So that's that's been great that sort of schedule, and the professors are very understanding. That I mean, most of us are working full time jobs or internships or some have some outside you know activities going on, and they're very flexible and understanding about that, which is great.

Dennise Cardona  00:08:47  
So I believe that's probably one of the biggest decision factors for somebody who's considering going to graduate school. I know it was for me. Is gosh, how am I going to do this? How am I going to work full time? Dedicate, you know so many hours a week to this class or classes, depending on the the load that you're taking, and also have some self care in there as well because that's equally as important as everything else that you're juggling, and that to me is I feel like that is a scary component for people for folks, and so hearing you explain that you know you were able to do it. Here it is. Like the truth is, yes, you have to attend class. Yes, you have to dedicate so many hours a week to doing schoolwork, but it's manageable and it's doable. From your experience so far, is there maybe a mindset shift that you had to make in order to say, okay, I have to just embrace these hours right now and do this, and just roll up my sleeves and do this work. Was there something that you had to do in your mindset to kind of get through that moments when you're like, "Oof, this is maybe a little challenging" because it can be.

Meghan  00:09:55  
Yeah. Oh, definitely. I think last semester something. That really helped me was setting aside blocks of time on my. I use Google Calendar, and I would just set a recurring block of time. And I knew, you know, Saturday afternoons or Sunday afternoons, that block of two or three hours was for catching up on readings and schoolwork, and just really using that time wisely because you know obviously life is life is lifing so yeah just setting aside that time and making sure to check in with myself like if it's if it's during the work week and you know I just I needed a break. We had homework due in a few days, and I would take a break for a day and come back.

Dennise Cardona  00:10:49  
Yeah, being

Meghan  00:10:49  
being flexible.

Dennise Cardona  00:10:51  
Yeah, being flexible that's a big thing. Is giving yourself that grace to like unwind and and so that you can go back refreshed. That's really important. One of the one of the biggest pieces of advice that I had received when I was going to school was to like take when you look at what you're going to have to do for the week, tackle the easiest things first. Just kind of get some momentum, get some things off your plate, so you can feel a little bit like okay, I've accomplished that. It seems like a little less daunting when you do that. And then one of the other things that I learned too-I don't know if you experience this-is like when you are looking at a workload for the week of schoolwork, and it kind of looks like an overwhelming type of project that's due or whatnot-is breaking that down into chunkable, digestible steps always helps by like okay maybe I'll just outline my ideas for this hour and then I'll leave it go take a break self care and now when I come back to it I can say okay I can start with number one on that list or whatever it is just planning

Meghan  00:11:59  
yeah definitely and I'll say to your point about kind of breaking things down into chunks. That's how, at least in my experience, that's how a lot of the assignments and projects we've gotten have been formatted, which is really helpful. We don't just get the entire assignment all at once and have to do all this work all at the same time. The work is broken up into, you know, like a lab component and then a data preparation component and then the report. So you get, you know, you get time to to kind of break the tasks down. So that's been really nice.

Dennise Cardona  00:12:36  
That's nice to hear. Yeah, that's that's very helpful from a curriculum point of view-that's fabulous. Yeah. So, where do you currently see yourself professionally? Right. Like, how do you believe the skills and the knowledge that you're learning from these from these classes are helping you to achieve these goals of where you see yourself?

Meghan  00:12:56  
Yeah. So, I think that was a little unclear to me at first. I was-I've been working with the county for a few years, and I was very heads down into in the weeds with that work, and kind of coming up for air with starting to attend grad school. I would really like to become a GIS manager eventually. The GIS department in our county is rapidly expanding. That there's been a realization of how powerful it is and how much more efficient it can make us. So, for the long-term goal, that's that's where I'm at, and I think that being in this master's program is an important part of advancing to

Dennise Cardona  00:13:43  
that-that's great. What would you say is your passion point with GIS? Is there a particular area that you like? I just love this stuff so much.

Meghan  00:13:51  
I love mapping infrastructure. That I know that sounds so nerdy, but I love it. It's just-it feels very fulfilling trying to keep track of all these structures and what condition they're in. Are they, you know, is it a safety issue? Things like that. That I'm really passionate about that, and making sure we know where things are because we don't want to start a project and not know where these, you know, this infrastructure is. So yeah, that's I would say that's what I'm passionate about is keeping public safe and keeping track of those assets.

Dennise Cardona  00:14:33  
Oh, that's great! I've really enjoyed listening to what you've shared about the GIS program and what your passion points are, and you know, it sounds like you have a future that you're excited about, and that it's just so purposeful. You know, when you think about GIS, if you're not a GIS person, it's like you don't really think about that-the whole safety issue, the the impact on society, and what you said. Your particular role within that is so critical, and I thank you for your service in that. Community safety is so important, so thank you for sharing that information and sharing your insights with us into the GIS field and the program in general. We really appreciate that.

Meghan  00:15:18  
Of course, yeah, we're more we're behind the scenes, sometimes, but we're always there making maps.

Dennise Cardona  00:15:26  
I love that. All right. Well, thank you so much, everybody, for tuning into this episode of UMBC Mic'd Up Podcast. If you'd like to learn more about our offerings, click the link in the show notes.