Next Stop: Front Royal, VA

It seems very likely that I will have a job when I get back to the states at the Smithsonian Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, VA! The main responsibilities of the internship focus on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis. Melissa, the person from the Spatial Analysis Lab who originally contacted me, is involved in researching the decline of dry tropical forests in Southeast Asia. Her work plan objectives are currently to analyze the amount and distribution of the remaining dry forest in SE Asia through existing data sets from literature, collect mammal biodiversity and habitat data from the field, and develop a method with the potential for monitoring land cover change over time. My responsibilities will include some involvement in the GIS analysis (probably starting with data analysis), helping with GIS training courses, and miscellaneous "grunt" work. 

So, basically I'll be doing data entry, making copies, and whatever else needs to be done to keep things running. But, it will be beneficial to work around people who are involved in current projects that apply GIS. GIS has popped up again and again in my reading and seems to have multiple applications and implications for biodiversity monitoring. I would like to learn first-hand how organizations use geographical applications to conduct conservation assessments. I'm looking for an introduction to GIS jargon and an overall feel for whether or not this is something I want to pursue in graduate school. Specific skills I hope to gain include data input into GIS programs, introduction to spatial analysis techniques, and habitat mapping (that could extend to habitat selection, the spread of invasive species, or the impact of land cover change). I am extremely eager to learn these skills and feel I can do this better through hands-on experience on a project rather than case studies in a classroom course.

Who knows? Maybe this is the "jumping off point" I've been waiting for. On the flip side, I was looking forward to spending time at home. Now, I may have only two weeks after I come home from Thailand before I fly off for three months in Virginia of all places. But, isn't that what I wanted, to explore GIS to nudge along my grad. school decision?