University of St. Thomas

When asked what one phrase best describes the geographical information systems major at St. Thomas, a faculty member replied, “employable.”

Welcome to the geographical information systems (GIS) facts page, where you’ll be taken beyond the course offerings and program description and deeper into the geographical information systems major. You’ll learn what St. Thomas students are doing now to enhance their educations and how recent graduates are succeeding in the real world. More importantly, we hope you’ll be able to use this information to decide if this major interests you.

A real student asks:

 

To major in GIS, do I have to be good in computers and geography?

A geographical information systems faculty member responds: No, you just need a curious mind and to be open to learning new ideas. It matters little whether you are a computer wizard or a first-time user – many of the software packages and analytical techniques that we employ are unique and, therefore, everyone in our program starts off on equal footing.

What jobs are possible with a Geography Information Systems major?

What are recent graduates doing now?

Nathan Tift ’05 was recently hired by Rowekamp Associates in Bloomington, Minn. as a GIS consultant. Nathan has also started his own online mapping company, DriftMap (www.driftmap.com), where he sells custom lake maps and other GIS services. Nathan came to our program after spending a year as a weather observer in Antarctica. His curiosity about landscapes, maps and computer analysis made geography a natural fit for him.

What opportunities are there to bolster my resume while I'm in the program?

Internships. Any student in geography who wants an internship or research experience gets one. We have some long-term contacts who provide internships for our students almost every semester (Target Corp., Best Buy, The Nature Conservancy) and others who periodically contact us with work to be done. Currently, our job board has paid internship announcements for the Metropolitan Council, the Three Rivers Park District, the City of Shakopee and the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

Study abroad. Current majors are studying in England and Ireland, while others are preparing to go to New Zealand and India during J-Term 2008. Because geography as a subject is so universal, virtually every college or university around the world has extensive offerings in this discipline. It is usually the case that St. Thomas students can satisfy some of their major or core university requirements while abroad. Geography is more than just maps; it is concerned with the spatial aspects of human existence - how people and their activity are distributed in space, how they use and perceive space and how they create and sustain the places that make up the earth's surface. Study abroad opportunities serve to deepen this understanding.. 

Faculty at work

All of our faculty are fully engaged in their discipline and student participation is the norm.

Dr. Robert Werner has been the Director of UST’s Bush Foundation Program grant since 2002. He is currently teaching an Africa course and plans to take students to South Africa over J-Term 2008. Dr. Paul Lorah continues to serve on the Board of the Minnesota Nature Conservancy. This semester he is teaching a Conservation Geography course and is conducting research with students on site location analysis for solar power facilities, modeling fragmentation in Minnesota’s forests, estimating the economic value of Minnesota ecosystem services and studying potential sites for prairie preserves. Dr. David Kelley has just been elected to the Minnesota GIS/LIS Consortium Board of Directors as the Higher Education Representative for 2008. He conducts research on landscape changes that result in impacts on watersheds in the upper Midwest and has incorporated stream monitoring of the Minnehaha Creek into his Landscapes: Physical Systems course. Ms. Catherine Hansen teaches two courses as an adjunct in our GIS concentration, but spends the bulk of her time working internally with students on research projects for UST programs and externally for Twin Cities clients.