This content was published: May 14, 2010. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
PCC adds Geography Information Systems option
Photos and story by Gina Whitehill-Baziuk
Portland Community College has added a Geographic Information Systems Certificate to its roster of career technical options.
In March, the 44-credit certificate was approved for PCC at the state level and will begin fall term 2010. Students will learn how to communicate geographic information, verbally and graphically, by using geographic tools and technologies. They also will be able to analyze geographic problems and questions as well as collect, create, analyze and document information. The program is aimed at architects, urban planners, environmental non-profit organizations and foresters looking for skill updates or retraining.
Thanks to the 2008 bond measure, this option will use a new 30-station computer lab with state-of-the-art GeoArc software that will help in their learning. View the video about the lab.
Jim Barta has already taken some of the certificate’s core classes.
The certificate was designed with an environmental sciences focus to meet the transfer requirements for Portland State University. PCC and Clackamas Community College, which has a similar option with a more technical focus, will work together. Geography Information Systems instructor Christina Friedle said these skills are becoming a standard for jobs in many sectors such as engineering, forestry and other environmental sciences.
“We all wish we were out there tromping around in the field,” she said, “but it’s a lot of looking at databases and Excel spreadsheets, or doing cartography – (putting) data into a map so it’s easily digested.”
PCC student Jim Barta, 47, of North Portland turned to the college to take the option’s core classes at the Rock Creek Campus, 17705 N.W. Springville Road. Barta has a bachelor’s degree in geography and cartography and a master’s in urban planning, both from University of Wisconsin in Madison.
After two years as a planner for the city of Tualatin, he was caught in a layoff and began working in the wireless industry, sometimes as a private sector employee and sometimes as a contractor. But, like so many hit hard by the 2008 recession, Barta spent much of 2009 unemployed. Barta had taken similar classes in the 1980s, which he said included “drawing maps,” but he hadn’t used those skills in 20 years, so he enrolled in the Geographic Information Systems classes, hoping that, with that knowledge under his belt, he will be able to apply for public and private sector positions.
“There was just no work, so I decided I had to do something,” Barta said. “I’m 47 years old and the time to do something is now. GIS would give me a leg up in my career. It’s a big plus if you have GIS skills to offer an employer or client.”