Continuing Education

Charting a Course to Geographic Information Science

lbl3@calvin.edu — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 21:06:52 +0000

Charting a Course to Geographic Information Science lbl3@calvin.edu Fri, 02/28/2025 - 16:06

Jason VanHorn tried many majors as an undergraduate, but nothing seemed right. Thinking back, he remembered an occupational report in seventh grade, and the job he had chosen to investigate was cartographer. “It was like a revelation when I remembered that. I suddenly said, ‘Oh, that’s what I’m all about.”

He discovered that his college had a geography and a digital cartography track, and within five minutes of his first course, he knew he had found his path. He graduated with a double major in geography and political science.

After graduation, Jason took a role in campus ministry, where he developed a love of teaching. “It was in ministry that I got a great opportunity to teach,” he explained. “So, when that time ended after five years, I was asking friends and family who knew me well, ‘What should I do next?’ They said, ‘Well, you love geography and teaching. You really need to go for your PhD and be a professor.’”

Focusing on geography and specializing in GIS, Dr. VanHorn earned his master’s degree from Texas A&M University. Then, he went to Ohio State University, where he obtained his PhD in geography, working with Dr. Mei-Po Kwan, the foremost expert in GIS in the world. “She was my advisor, so that experience was very rich and deep for me,” he recounted. “It was during those graduate years that I realized not only do I love to teach, but I love to go deep in research as well. And so those became my two great passions in geography.”

This path led VanHorn to �鶹�� in 2007, where he became a professor of geography in the GEO department, which comprises geology, geography, and environment.

As a professor, VanHorn emphasizes how GIS can be applied to real world problems. GIS and mapping technologies are used in nearly every industry.

GIS Applications in Anti-Terrorism Work

One interesting application that Dr. VanHorn and his students have investigated is the use of GIS in anti-terrorism efforts. GIS can be used to mitigate an event that has just happened or stop it before it happens.

“In my work — which I also bring into the classroom— we’re often looking at the historical record of terrorism incidents in a particular place,” said Dr. VanHorn. “Let’s choose Madrid, Spain, for example. Let’s look at the historical events of the political violence in the city and map those incidents.”

VanHorn and his students examine not only the spatial but also the temporal dimensions of when terrorist attacks occurred. “How many people lost their lives? How many people were injured? Using GIS enables us to analyze the data as points on a map associated with time. Then, we can ask questions to understand more about the context of what occurred and the spatial dimensions of the phenomena, so that we can think about protecting people in place now and in the future.”

Dr. VanHorn’s work has explored prevention during high profile events as well. “One that occurred was a celebration for a former president who had passed away. It was a big VIP event, and thousands of people were going to descend on the city,” he said. “My question was, can we use GIS to protect that event? Sure enough, I built a 3D analysis of the stage where the event was to occur. From there, I used viewshed analysis that said, what are all places in a geography sense that can see that place? Then, we’ve covered an entire framework of a geography, where agents tasked with protecting people have a spatial framework from which to work. That saves energy, that saves time, that saves in terms of costs.”

How GIS Is Used to Solve Environmental Problems

GIS is effective at solving environmental challenges, too. For example, GIS specialists can focus on large-scale issues related to the environment, like patterns of climate change or the spread of wildfires. They can also use their skills on local issues with a narrower scope, such as the spatial dimensions of a regional salmonella outbreak.

“When you think about GIS, it illuminates an array of problems ranging from simple to complex because everything has a geography and a space,” explained Dr. VanHorn. “We can use GIS to identify problems, monitor changes, manage events and data, do forecasting and prediction, help in the decision-making process, and understand trends.”

Some examples of how GIS is used related to environmental concerns:

Disaster management: Early warning systems, modeling, and disaster response.
Air quality: Monitoring, analytics, and planning to predict and solve air quality issues.
Forest fire management: Hazard map production and simulation.
Managing natural resources: Soil erosion, drought, earthquakes, and more.

Professionals with experience in GIS and mapping technologies can play a pivotal role in protecting our environment and society. “GIS provides foundational theory and skills and methods to investigate toward a solution,” said Dr. VanHorn.

How GIS Aids in Business Decisions

Another way GIS skills are used is in business decision making. Dr. VanHorn thinks the link between the two is clear. “Business is linked to geography. We know that the mantra for real estate is location, location, location. That is inherently geography, geography, geography. When you think about business, items are coming from a place, they’re being manufactured in a place, and they have to come to market,” he explained.

There’s also potential for GIS to impact the nonprofit world that Dr. VanHorn thinks could help fill service gaps. “If we pick a program, let’s say an after-school program, we can look at all the nonprofits in the city that have after-school programs,” he said. “And then we can ask where are the gaps? Where are the overlaps? All kinds of possibilities exist with thinking spatially.”

Learn more

These industry areas are just a taste of where students can apply their skills to grow fulfilling careers. GIS is used in almost every industry, from programming to agriculture to healthcare. The possibilities of the impact to be made with strong educational skills are endless.

GIS is a growing field, and Calvin offers one of the only faith-based Master of Geographic Information Science programs in the country. Learn more about geo at Calvin.

Fri, 02/28/2025 - 12:00

Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this on Email Print this

Tags

Continuing Education

Content Manager

Laurie Lemmen

News type

Article

Featured

Feature image

Feature image caption

GIS map of terrorism attacks in Madrid and 3-d model a stage

Departments

Graduate Programs

Wayfinder Program opens the doors to endless opportunities

msk23@calvin.edu — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:02:27 +0000

Wayfinder Program opens the doors to endless opportunities msk23@calvin.edu Wed, 02/12/2025 - 10:02

“It was like I was in a world full of so many opportunities, but I didn’t have the key to open the door for those opportunities,” said Lexie Zuno. “And the opportunities were through a glass door. You see them and you hear about them, but you think ‘is it not for me?’”

Feeling stuck

After graduating from high school, Zuno felt stuck. “I grew up not knowing what life had for me. Going to school and seeing all of my peers circle on standardized testing that their parents have higher than a high school diploma, some bachelor’s degrees, some master’s degrees, I would always sit and look and say, ‘what’s below a high school diploma?’ My parents didn’t have that.”

Zuno was entering unchartered waters and while working in an aid position at a local school she met a woman named Anna who asked her a simple question that would change the trajectory of her life.

Invited to dream

“She was like, ‘hey, what are you doing school-wise?’ said Zuno. “I looked at her like she was crazy. I’m like ‘I can’t afford that. I can’t do that. I’m scraping by as it is. I don’t know where to start. My parents didn’t go to college. My parents didn’t graduate high school. What’s the big hype?’”

Anna then told Zuno about a program she heard was starting up at �鶹��. She said, “I think you’d be great for this program,” recalls Zuno.

So Anna brought Zuno to Calvin’s campus.

“I had never been on a college campus before and it was almost a surreal feeling,” said Zuno. “She [Anna] was like ‘you know, this could be you, you know going to classes.’ I was like ‘No. �鶹��? That’s crazy.’”

Shortly after her visit, Zuno met with Abbie Lipsker, director of continuing studies at Calvin, who told her about an application that was about to be sent out for the university’s Wayfinder program. The program is the state of Michigan’s first Clemente Course in the humanities, which is a transformative educational experience for adults facing economic and social barriers to higher education. It is offered off-campus in a neighboring zip code to the university in direct partnership with several community organizations. 

Taking a bold step

Zuno applied. And a couple of months later, she received a letter.

“That anticipation was quite agonizing,” said Zuno. “I ran home and showed my parents, and I’m like ‘I made it into Calvin’s program.’ My mom cried. My dad was ecstatic for me.”

In June, Zuno started in the inaugural cohort of the Wayfinder program.

“These women I’m studying alongside, each of their individualized stories leaves me breathless,” said Zuno. “All of us were dealt our own cards, kind of a hard hand to play with I’d say. But the perseverance in the room and the courage and the will to want to keep moving forward and break all of these generational curses down is so inspiring, and it makes you not want to stop. Everyone is rooting for each other and all these women are going to do amazing things.”

Access to endless opportunity

For Zuno, she’s no longer looking at opportunities through glass doors.

“Those doors are open now and I can pick what I want,” said Zuno. “It’s so crazy, once you get through that door you see all these opportunities and now you have a new problem, you don’t know what you want to do. There are so many options.”

Zuno is no longer stuck. She’s dreaming.

I am thinking ‘what option do I want?’ And they [Calvin professors] tell you that you can layer on options, it’s okay. And you find all these paths and all these jobs that you didn’t know existed,” said Zuno.

Inspiring future generations

While Zuno begins dreaming, she is keenly aware that her journey will have ripple effects.

“I hope to continue my education here at Calvin and one day be able to help someone like me, you know, be an inspiration,” said Zuno. “I want to show adults that it’s never too late. You don’t have to follow the timeline that you need to graduate high school, go to college, get married, have kids. Everyone’s timeline is different. You want to start school when you’re 25, 35, 45, you know the door can be opened.”

And she knows she is paving a way for her family as well.

“Everyone that comes after me will have someone to look up to,” said Zuno about her being a first-generation college student. “To be able to be that trailblazer almost is inspiring, it makes me not want to stop, it makes me want to reach my hand out to everyone all around who has similar stories, similar struggles, and be like, ‘hey, come with me, we got this, we are going to learn together and grow and we are going to make this world a better place.’”

While Zuno credits the Wayfinder program for setting a spark in her, she knows who set her on this path.

“Without God instilled in me I feel like I would have felt like I’m doomed, like there’s no hope. And he instills this faith and hope in me that this [Wayfinder program] is for me,” said Zuno.” And from the beginning he had this great plan set out for me that he was going to open those doors. He was the one who lit the light to these glass doors and is right here with me all along the way. On days that it seems difficult and easy to want to give up, a quick prayer to the man upstairs and all of a sudden, I feel better.”

Wed, 02/12/2025 - 12:00

Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this on Email Print this

Tags

Wayfinder

Continuing Education

News type

News and Stories

Featured

Feature image

Story Type

Student story

Person

Matthew Kucinski

No Longer on the Outside Looking In

msk23@calvin.edu — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 16:18:00 +0000

No Longer on the Outside Looking In msk23@calvin.edu Wed, 10/16/2024 - 12:18

For Carol Sterling, �鶹�� was always in sight, but seemingly out of reach. She had been on campus before, but as a visitor, taking her kids trick or treating when they were young. But her view of campus came mostly from a distance. “I loved looking over there and I loved seeing all the students moving around, but I never thought I’d be a student there,” said Sterling.

For Sterling, getting into Calvin, affording it, and finding her fit all seemed to be barriers to entry.

So, more than 30 years after earning her GED, associate’s degree, and experiencing a lot of life, including becoming a mom as a teenager, Sterling was sitting in a waiting area at a local organization in her neighborhood. She saw a brochure on a table with the �鶹�� logo on it. Her first thought: “I can’t get into Calvin.”

Starting a Journey

But, she picked it up. “I like to sit and look at papers when I sit around late at night,” said Sterling. “I literally had the brochure with me, and I hadn’t looked at it for maybe two weeks, and one night I picked it up and looked at it and it said, ‘go online if you were interested,’” said Sterling, “and the journey started there.”

“It caught me off guard, but I felt the Spirit lead me,” said Sterling. “I thought ‘this is you, Lord,’ because there were a few other things that had been leading up to it and everything had just been falling into place.”

Sterling applied and was accepted into the inaugural cohort of the Wayfinder Program, the state of Michigan’s first Clemente Course in the Humanities, which is a transformative jumpstart higher educational experience for adults facing economic and social barriers to higher education.

Taking Calvin Classes

Now, on Wednesday evenings from 6-9 p.m., she is among the 20 women who are meeting in the upstairs room in the Women’s Resource Center, taking �鶹�� classes right in her neighborhood.

"Now when I look at this building it means something to me. We have something that’s helping us grow right within the community, a little hidden secret,” said Sterling.

“The staff and the professors, they are great. They’re not lenient. We’re in college, we are in university and the way they are teaching us we are learning a lot fast, and I didn’t know I’d be able to grasp on,” said Sterling. “And I’m excited about everything that I’m learning. I’m in my 50s and I’m still able to learn, and I’m happy and excited.”

Dreaming Bigger

For Sterling, the Wayfinder Program has opened up a door to a brighter future.

“After finishing the Wayfinder Program I want to continue on at �鶹�� and earn a degree in social work/sociology,” said Sterling. “That’s my next goal. Pray for me that I get there.”

And her “why” for wanting this is not for “her,” but for the generations that come after.

Helping Others Dream Bigger Too

“I want to receive information so that I am able to talk young people, young mothers into wanting what I am receiving,” said Sterling. “I do see a lot of people give up, young people, especially in the community where I’m from, because they don’t have a why, and they don’t think that there is a why,” said Sterling. “I want to be able to go out and reach others so that I’m not the last and others can feel what I’m feeling. It’s a beautiful thing.”

Now when Sterling drives by the entrance to �鶹�� off Burton Street she has a different perspective; she no longer sees herself as just a visitor looking in.

“I’m honored. I drive past and I tell my grandkids, I’m enrolled there,” said Sterling.
“They say, ‘really Grandma?!’ My grandson was very excited, and that humbled me to see the expression on his face. So, it gives me great honor to know we can be there.”

Interested in receiving more information about the program or want to apply to be part of a future cohort? Learn more about the Wayfinder program.

Wed, 10/16/2024 - 12:00

Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this on Email Print this

Tags

Continuing Education

Wayfinder

News type

News and Stories

Featured

Yes

Feature image

Story Type

Student story

Person

Matthew Kucinski

Discovering A Different Path to the Same Destination

msk23@calvin.edu — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 12:59:23 +0000

Discovering A Different Path to the Same Destination msk23@calvin.edu Tue, 10/01/2024 - 08:59

When Nohemi Arreola was in her senior year of high school, she had her sights set on college.

“I had plans to come to Calvin,” said Arreola. “I was really wanting to get to that step, but life and my choices took me down a different path.”

Fast forward eight years and you’ll find Arreola on a Wednesday evening sitting with a group of 20 other women in an upstairs room of the Women’s Resource Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They’re taking a class through �鶹��.

“Back then I was just young and trying to find a job that made money to live. It was a selfish mentality, which is common [at that time of life],” said Arreola. “So now coming back to Calvin as a 26-year-old woman, I’m coming in with different goals, coming in with a different mentality, and just this drive.”

In that eight-year gap since high school a lot of life happened, which would ultimately shape Arreola’s “why” for college, making it drastically different and far deeper.

Feeling stuck, unworthy, and alone

She had her first child a few months after graduating high school, ended up splitting from her baby’s father shortly after, leaving her homeless for a time, which caused her to almost lose custody. While all of this was happening, Arreola was working through layers of baggage and trauma from her childhood, growing up in a home where she never felt good enough. Her life was spiraling, and she turned to substance abuse and self-harm, attempting suicide multiple times.

“I truly don’t think I’m supposed to be here,” said Arreola. “Year after year I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I couldn’t even make goals because I didn’t feel like I could do the work. I felt so stuck, so unworthy.”

She recalls waking up from comas alone in hospital rooms, with no parents or friends in sight. It was in those moments, she was reminded “at the end of the day it’s me and God and God’s love, and I feel God with me every night,” said Arreola.

Experiencing freedom, love, and community

“So now that I’m here and have defeated those odds I want to use my power, my drive, and my voice for the voiceless for those hurting out there who I know just need a little encouragement and love, which is what Wayfinder did for me,” said Arreola.

The first cohort of the Wayfinder Program kicked off in Summer 2024.

The Wayfinder Program, which Arreola is a part of is the state of Michigan’s first Clemente Course in the Humanities, which is a transformative educational experience for adults facing economic and social barriers to higher education. The program is offered off-campus in a neighboring zip code to the university in direct partnership with several community organizations. Arreola is discovering just how formative and life-giving of an experience it is being a part of this community of learners.

“We’re loved here, there’s no doubt about it. We feel the love,” said Arreola. “We are showered with gifts, we’re showered with affirmations, we’re given that oomph that souls so desperately need.”

“I don’t feel tired coming here after a long day of work, after teaching my son all day,” said Arreola, who homeschools her son and who now has three children. “I’m so excited to get here and see these women because I know that they have also led their lives with false beliefs and other people’s opinions about them that they’ve let drive them for so many years. And I feel like we’re all on the same page here and we’re waking up to this truth and this light in us that this world so desperately needs.”

Dreaming bigger

Arreola is now dreaming bigger, aiming higher, and going beyond her previously held limiting beliefs about herself and her future.

Nohemi Arreola collaborates with classmates during a Wednesday evening class.

“I’m ready to challenge the status quo in every area of our community,” said Arreola. “And if I can’t do it, then I’ll at least speak the ideas or write them down for professors to read so I can be led in the right direction.”

When Arreola completes the eight Calvin-credit Wayfinder Program, she thinks her next step is the one she hoped to take eight years earlier.

“I’m the first in my family to graduate high school, and now I’m going to college. I want to complete that too. My next step will be hopefully through this program to find a mentor because I really don’t know where to go with all this passion that I have, and I think there are many different degrees that I could get,” said Arreola. “The experience here at Wayfinder is giving me the support and confidence that I need to keep going. I’m just so grateful for that. It’s what I needed.”

Interested in receiving more information about the program or want to apply to be part of a future cohort? Learn more about the Wayfinder program.

Tue, 10/01/2024 - 12:00

Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this on Email Print this

Tags

Wayfinder

Continuing Education

News type

News and Stories

Featured

Yes

Feature image

Feature image caption

Nohemi Arreola (right) and her younger sister Perla (left) are part of the first cohort of the Wayfinder Program at �鶹��.