Extracurricular Activities
Geomatics club Vice President 2022-2023, Geomatics club Vice President 2023-2024, Survey Tech Internship 2022, GIS Tech Internship 2023
A Little Bit About Me
I am 33 years old, have a 9-year-old daughter, and worked in wildland fire for twelve years prior to my decision to change career paths. I grew up in Klamath Falls, moved to Bend for two years, and attended Central Oregon Community College. I was young and had no direction, so I lost my way as Mt. Bachelor was 20 minutes away. I completed a one-year computer specialist certificate and started working in wildland fire for the entire season. In 2017, I received a full-time position with the Forest Service. The next five summers were filled with wilderness camping and cooking steaks over an open fire. Although it was fun, there was little time and energy left to spend with my daughter during the off days. That has been the greatest reason to gain a degree.
Why I Chose Oregon Tech and My Major
Klamath Falls is my hometown and where my father still lives. I spent five years on a wildland fire module that is more tech-savvy than a typical crew, so we are given the more technical fire assignments. It was fun to see how useful cell phones can be while gathering fireline data. It just so happened that one of my crewmembers had a GIS degree, so I started asking questions and started to think I would enjoy the career options available.
My Influential Professors
Dr. Ritter- He was my first professor in the winter term of 2021 when I was working from home during my first winter of working for the Forest Service. I was amazed at how quickly he would respond to emails and how eager he was to help me learn. Dr. Fogarty - He has been a great resource for any math questions that I may have, even if I am not in his class. I always have the feeling of being welcome during his office hours, and if he is busy, he is happy to let me know when he will be available.
My Greatest Learning Experience At Oregon Tech
It is never too late to learn/earn a degree. I was in the Wildland Firefighting profession for over ten years and loved what I did. As fire season got longer and fires got more dangerous, I decided it was time to change my profession instead of "riding it out" for another 20 years to retirement. It has been a great experience to meet other like-minded individuals who are doing something similar, as well as being a good influence on younger students.
My Plans After Graduation
I plan to remain in Southern Oregon, ideally, I would work for the company that I have worked for the last two summers in Bend. They have plans to expand to Medford, but the timeline is still unknown. I would like to remain as close as possible to my daughter, at least until she graduates high school. In the future, I plan to work on GIS projects during my weekends to start my own business and be on my own schedule.