New Faculty Member

Check our this heart-warming story of our brand-new faculty member, Daniel Jarvis, who will be teaching Geospatial Technology in the spring!

I grew up in Winooski spending much of my summers swimming and fishing along the Winooski River and my winters sledding at Landry Park. While I initially had no desire to continue my education beyond high school, a friend recommended CCV and after three years of part time school and exposure to some great instructors, my worldview had greatly expanded and I was hooked on education. I attended UVM for a year studying Environmental Science and then transferred to the University of Colorado in Boulder where I triple majored in Geography, Environmental Studies, and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. After graduating from CU Boulder I entered graduate school at Clark University in Worcester, MA, attaining a Masters in Geography and am soon to receive my PhD in Geography as well. CCV is near and dear to me and I was very excited when I learned that they were setting up shop in Winooski, and am delighted to now be a part of this very important school here in my home town.

 

This spring I will be teaching a new course: Special Topics: Geospatial Technology - ENV-1711. This course will be an introduction to GIS mapping technology and the use of Remote Sensing (satellite and aerial imagery), GPS, and spatial analysis in a GIS environment. In addition, students will get to learn the nuances of cartographic design (the making of maps). I am very excited to be teaching this course because the material will be directly related to the research I have been doing for the past five years at Clark University. My research experience at Clark has been focused on characterizing Forest disturbances such as wildfires and insect outbreaks in the southern Rocky Mountains. While doing this research I have mapped fire and insect damage using satellite imagery, and analyzed spatial patterns of forest damage in a GIS environment, which has involved using all the skills that I will be teaching in Geospatial Technology. This is an exciting topic, with extremely high job prospects, and I encourage all students who may be interested in pursuing a career in any professional field to consider taking this course. The use of GIS technology has become nearly ubiquitous in the professional world, and a working knowledge of its use is indispensable.