June 2018 Spotlight GeoMentor: Kushendra Shah
June 2018 GeoMentor Spotlight
Kushendra N. Shah, GISP - GIS Programmer/Analyst at Noble Research Institute
What was your favorite class in K-12? Growing up in mountainous country –Nepal, I was always interested to know how land and mountains were formed; what would it look in bird’s eye view; how far was I from the world’s tallest mountain. I was intrigued by the geographic and geologic phenomena. The Geoscience course was my favorite class during my high school years.
How did you first learn about and/or use GIS? In 2008, I got opportunity to take introductory course of GIS during my undergraduate degree in Environmental Science at Kathmandu University, Nepal. During that time, I used ESRI GIS software to perform mapping and identifying potential places for developing community based tourism maps. Those maps helped many local people and tourists who came for visit to find better information of about the communities and villages. Since then I came to know that GIS is a great tool that allows us to make an informed decision in wide areas.
Name one thing you love about GIS and/or geography: GIS is gravitated by the principle of geography which is attributed to the things and places. I would like to recall Tobler’s first law of geography “everything related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things. In fact, GIS helps to understand the world in analytical way.
Why did you want to volunteer as a GeoMentor? I want to share my ideas and skills to the Future generations beyond what they learnt in schools. I have participated in extension and outreach activities through Noble Academy from last two years and it gave me immense pleasure to teach K-12 community about importance of GIS, maps and drone technology in Agriculture research. For instance, Kids were able to identify waterlogged spots or disease crops in the agricultural field from heatmaps. With GeoMentor opportunity, I believe I will get chance to learn student’s areas of interest and how they want to shape their career in future. In addition, I would like to encourage youths to pursue career in Geospatial Technology as it is evolving.
What kind of GeoMentor volunteer opportunity and experience are you looking for? I have continued interest in sharing and mentoring K-12 and/or youths who are interested to learn GIS technology and applications to understand the world. Given the opportunity type, I am available to share my expertise remotely or in personal training through local organizations or school and universities.
If someone asked you why they should learn about GIS and/or geography, how would you respond in one sentence? GIS and geography helps to address real-world challenges and problems and make informed decisions.
Email: knshah@noble.org
Websites: https://www.noble.org/education/
Questions? Email geomentors@aag.org.