Goals for Summer 2020

I am working with the California Coastal Commission (CCC) this summer as an intern and am excited to get valuable experience working for a government agency. My goals are to learn some GIS skills and to aid in the research of sea level rise.

I never took a class on GIS so I think this internship is a great opportunity for me to take some online classes and get experience with the program. I feel this is an important skill to acquire in the geoscience fields I am interested in. My internship needs help compiling data and pictures of the coast to use with GIS, and I am excited to get some work in the field as well as research work. I am going to be working on a research report on sea level rise due to melting ice sheets in Iceland and Greenland. I plan to improve my research and writing skills. Hopefully, I come out of this internship with more confidence and skills for finding an awesome job.

I am prepared to use a professional work ethic while completing research, collecting data, and overcoming any challenge I face. I will use everything I learned in college to successfully integrate a professional mind set and be a great employee. It is important to be to be interested in the work I do and to be fully invested in a project. I want some parts of this internship to challenge me so I can overcome the odds and show I have what it takes to be competent in the work force.

I hope to get hands on learning with different tools and technologies that can aid in my future career plans. I believe this internship will help me establish a good set of skills that will help me get a great job in the future!

Covid-19 creative project

Coronavirus.

Do not go outside, just look.

Watch the clouds roll by.

Summer has begun.

Put on your mask for the beach.

Will it ever end?

Social Distancing.

Its been so long since we touched.

Stay six feet away.

GeoScience Career Panel Reflection

The career story that resonated the most with me was from Pat Hoban, the Senior Geologist and President at Weber, Hayes & Associates environmental consulting. Pat graduated UCSC with the same degree as me, although around 40 years earlier. Straight after college, Pat found a job in construction which lasted 4 years. He was adamant that although this job wasn’t directly related to his degree, he still found that his time was well spent gathering useful work experience. Sometimes I worry that I won’t find the right job for me, and Pat gave me the reassurance that no matter where I end up, it will be beneficial to me in the long run. Pat also shared some wonderful life advise on staying positive in the face of uncertainty while making your next move in life. He truly eased some of my nerves after advocating that your life doesn’t have to be planned out or go according to schedule for you to succeed, it just takes a positive outlook.

The most surprising was that Adina knew all the panelists very well and had previously worked with many of them over the years. It shows that good connections can last a lifetime. I would like to learn more about the relationships between Adina and the sponsors!

This discussion has changed the way I feel about post-graduation because it reassured me that its ok to be a little lost every once in a while, and to not know exactly what to do in life. I was pretty worried about getting a job straight out of college, but now I think I will be easier on myself for not finding a job straight away when I get denied by employers.

Final Reflection

With my GEOPATHS summer internship with the California Coastal Commission ending, I look back at the time before I started and contemplate whether my goals and expectations for this program were reached. At the start of the internship my goals were to learn some GIS skills and to aid in the research of sea level rise. Although I did not reach these goals to the fullest degree, I believe I succeeded in many more ways that I had not imagined. I can happily say that my expectations were generously met as I had a blast working this summer mapping coastal armoring structures in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.

My main assignment for the CCC was to use a custom field survey to collect a dataset of armoring structures parallel to the coast which help aid against sea level rise. These structures include rock revetments, seawalls, retaining walls which hold back cliffs, and surface armoring which covers a cliff face. I would use an existing GIS web map with identified locations of structures which was compiled using aerial photographs. Then, I would go out into the field and fill out a survey with my phone, verifying the structures’ locations with multiple pictures and a ton of information about the structures’ conditions, local environment, and accessibility. The survey also maps the locations with GPS tracking and plots the datapoints on a global map. It took a little time figuring out the kinks in the field survey app, but eventually I found the solution to get everything running smoothly. I completed my goals to use a little GIS and new technologies to gain valuable experience for jobs in the field. Eventually, the CCC mapping team plans on combining the results of the field survey with the GIS web map as well as attaching related documents and permits for ease of access. I completed over 300 surveys in the past two months and have mapped nearly all the armoring structures that line the coast of Santa Cruz county. I loved visiting and mapping every accessible beach in Santa Cruz and it was a great way to end my four-year college career in the city before I moved back home to San Clemente in Southern California.

In addition to mapping all the armoring structures in Santa Cruz, I was also assigned multiple structure locations in Monterey county that the CCC mapping team wanted me to visit and verify. Some of the aerial photographs used on the coastal armoring mapping project do not have the best resolution or viewing angle and it can be hard to make out armoring structures. I traveled to various locations in Monterey and verified the armoring structures that were present as well as correcting some suspected structures that turned out to be natural. A cliff face in Pebble Beach was mistaken for a seawall and natural rocks were misidentified as rock revetment across from Point Lobos State Natural Reserve. This project had me travel the beautiful California coast across Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties and I am so grateful I was gifted such an amazing summer internship.

It feels great finishing an internship where my position assists Coastal Commission analysts and staff by providing valuable field data on coastal armoring structures. The photos I captured and the assessments I made will help the CCC complete their jobs more efficiently and effectively. During this internship something I learned that I did not expect was the sheer number of different armoring structures riddling the coast and their usefulness in protecting against sea level rise for different situations. Rock revetments seem like the easiest and cheapest way to combat encroaching water and waves to protect roads and residences, and that is proven by how it lines much of the coastline in California. Most of the surveys I took were for rock revetments at the back of beaches or at the base of cliffs to halter erosional processes. Some of these structures were in bad shape with some rocks buried and covered by sand or with rocks scattered due to wave action. Seawalls seemed to be the best method of protecting against sea level rise, but they are more expensive. It was interesting to see how retaining walls were constructed to hold back some bluffs, but surface armoring was utilized to cover over the steeper, more compromised cliff faces. Its interesting how much we alter our coastlines to protect ourselves form the ever-encroaching water. At some point, nothing will be able to hold back the rising seas and we will have to resort to managed retreat further inland.

Something I wish I had known at the beginning of the internship is that the web version of the field survey was not able to upload multiple pictures and did not have GPS location activated. Early on I had to do a lot of testing and redo some surveys because something went wrong on the back end. At least this allowed me to develop my problem solving skills and shows employers I can overcome any challenge thrown at me. I plan on using my experience working with the commission to land a job with the organization or something in a related field. This program was such an amazing opportunity for me to get valuable work experience after I graduated college, especially in the state of the world as it is in 2020.