Harper College GIS program prepares students for growing, lucrative field

When Carolina Szoepe enrolled at Harper College, she had no idea what GIS was, much less planned to study it or work in the field.

Now a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) project assistant for the city of Aurora’s IT department, Szoepe credits Harper College’s GIS Certificate program with leading her to her professional passion and launching her career.

“I love what I do,” Szoepe said. “I work with IT, planning and zoning, engineering … There is always something different to do. It’s really great, because instead of just repeating the same tasks over and over, I meet people and figure out what they need, and what I can provide for them and for the community they are trying to serve.”

The ubiquitous nature of GIS, which is becoming embedded in an ever-increasing range of fields, is exactly why students should consider enrolling in Harper’s GIS program, said its coordinator, Professor Mukila Maitha.

The term “GIS” refers to the suite of technology used to analyze and solve location-based problems and present spatial information in a variety of ways, including maps, Maitha explained.

For example, businesses use GIS to analyze customer behavior and demographics to determine the best location for new stores. Municipalities use GIS to manage infrastructure and determine zoning and land use.

Emergency management operations use GIS to monitor data about natural disasters such as wildfires. Environmental management companies use GIS to map the distribution of plant species and monitor vegetation health. And these are just a handful of examples.

Launched in 2015, Harper’s GIS Certificate program prepares graduates to work as entry-level GIS technicians or analysts.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the profession has a “bright outlook” and is expected to grow rapidly in the next several years. GIS technicians earn an average wage of $110,160 in Illinois.

The 18-credit hour academic program has graduated 29 students to date, with about 10 more expected to complete the certificate this academic year.

Szoepe stumbled upon the GIS program while taking a geography course taught by Maitha, who noticed her aptitude during an assignment that involved creating a basic map.

“He suggested that I look into GIS, and I thought, ‘This is kind of cool!’” she said. “I was interested in computer science and learning about the Earth, and GIS combined all of that.”

Szoepe earned a GIS certificate and graduated with an associate degree from Harper in 2022, then went on to earn two bachelor’s degrees – in GIS and geoscience – from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

While at Harper, Szoepeheld a GIS internship with the village of Bartlett, where she mostly worked with the public works department on utility mapping and community engagement.

Harper alumnus Ryan Facks also landed an internship, followed by a job, thanks to the skills he learned in the college’s GIS program.

Facks, a Northern Illinois University student who graduated with an associate degree from Harper in December 2023, was an intern last summer at SITE Technologies in Chicago.

The company then offered him a 30-hour per week job as GIS analyst, with the expectation that he would continue his studies to earn a bachelor’s degree.

Facks said he took the Harper GIS courses to fulfill his elective requirements after perusing the various certificates offered by the college. “I have always been interested in geography and I am a very visual learner – and GIS has technology visualization and geography all combined in one,” he said. “As I went along, I realized that GIS has a lot of computer programming involved, and that’s my interest.”

The Harper GIS courses are taught by Maitha and two other instructors. All have extensive teaching and workplace experience, and are members of professional organizations such as the American Association of Geographers and the Illinois GIS Association.

A key component of the GIS program, which is 100% online, is free access to the industry’s flagship software, ArcGIS, thanks to the college’s investment into an educational license.

Additionally, instructors help students with internship referrals and career readiness with resume evaluation and mock interviews.

The program also benefits from an advisory committee involving GIS professionals from the private and public sectors.

“The committee keeps us abreast of the needs they are seeing in the workplace, both currently and upcoming,” Maitha said, “and they periodically review our curriculum to make sure it’s current.”

Maitha is an enthusiastic instructor, always ready to help and advocate for students, Facks said. He encourages students to meet with him, either in person or via video, and provides a lab assistant to help students with homework.

“(Professor Maitha) is always posting about internships and early career positions, and he’s always encouraging students to send their resumes to him. He actually sat down with me for about an hour to do the interview prep for the internship,” Facks said. “Professor Maitha is why I stayed at Harper, and why I evolved and grew as a student and as a person.”

Both Facks and Szoepe said Harper’s GIS program gave them an excellent foundation for working in the “real world” with practical, hands-on learning.

“Your grade is highly dependent on actually using GIS software and doing projects,” Facks said. “It wasn’t a lot of tests or quizzes. You have to demonstrate your skills, all the time.”

Szoepe echoed that.

“The courses teach you GIS skills, and also skills you need in the workplace, such as when you run into errors and you need problem-solving,” she said. “The program definitely prepared me for the future.”