Rachel Stevenson
The Spinning Compass
The Spinning Compass: GIS Student Resources
The Spinning Compass, was a blog started in Fall of 2014, to provide a space for students to find and gain access to resources pertaining to Geography and GIS. Such as internships, professional organizations with student memberships and informative websites that help students develop their careers within the GIS field. My protfolio is also named the spinning compass, because I will be documenting the process of creating my portoflio, every step that is involved in developing this portoflio and what process I have gone through to make it presentable to employers within the field. So this portfolio will serve two purposes, first it will showcase, my own work as a student, while also providing a how to guide for other students for how to develop their own protfolios within the GIS field.
About me
Rachel Stevenson, Grew up in NJ, Moved to Maryland where she obtained a B.S in Criminal Justice and now lives in Arvada, Colorado. Rachel is a Graduate Student, obtaining her Master's degree in Applied Geography and Geospatial Science at University of Colorado- Denver. Her thesis work currently consisted of Hazards and Mitigation Strategies using Geospatial Science to understand how urban areas are impacted by natural disasters and what steps can be taken to prepare residents for natural disasters before they occur.
Rachel is also currently involved in running Maptime Boulder, a non profit organization that seeks to provide opportunities for communities to get together and learn about free open source mapping software.
Rachel is a two term AmeriCorps member, having served as a VISTA in the last year at Mi Casa Resource Center as a volunteer coordinator, Rachel helped develop and create a volunteer program that provides volunteer support for the various programs that happen at MI Casa, including ESL and GED classes. Her first year as an AmeriCorps State/National member helped Rachel learn and build her love and interest in GIS and hazard mitigation. During her AmeriCorps term her work consisted of helping prepare Boulder County residents for future disasters by teaching residents and town governments about continuation of operations plans (COOP) and helping them to create emergency preparedness kits. Her AmeriCorps terms has taught her that she would like to do work with GIS and Geospatial Science that is of service to others, by helping them to be prepared and ready for any type of disaster.
