Examples

My name is William "Tanner" Etherton and I'm a 2021 HSU alumni with a degree in Economics and a Minor in Geospatial Analytics. I came to HSU because of the Universities commitment to sustainability and its specialization in the natural sciences. My hope was to begin to integrate my economic degree with the natural sciences as a way to promote sustainability. I was not disappointed. The department has multiple courses that focus on sustainable development, describing how economics relates to our natural and social capital and why its important. This allowed me to branch out into other fields like the geospatial sciences, which I quickly realized had immense potential for use in sustainable economics. After my first semester in the field I committed to the minor. The Southern California Food Deserts project below is from that first semester and one of the biggest contributors to why I decided to go down this route.

In my Senior year at HSU I was awarded an internship with Humboldt County Economic Department, an opportunity they give out every year. The internship involved working on two projects in the Humboldt Area, and I was surprised how quickly my GIS skills came in handy. The project in Blue Lake, which aimed to promote recreational activity in the area, required looking at a variety of developed maps to determine trail routes, parking areas, and other potential recreational infrastructure locations. It was the Economic Infrastructure Finance District project on the Samoa Peninsula, however, that required extensive use of GIS software for a thorough analysis. My analysis and its findings were used in the resolution being submitted to the Board of Supervisors,\ and if the EIFD passes my maps and data could likely be used in the final draft of the Infrastructure Financing Plan. This internship provided me with invaluable experience, lasting relationships, and professional references, and reassurance that I was on the right path. After graduating I had hoped to earn a job working for the county, now I believe I will seek my master's in Spatial Economics (A degree now offered at multiple colleges including USC) or even go for my doctorate in economics.

My hope is that the two projects below will inspire other's to explore the potential of spatial economics and hopefully contribute to this portfolio with their own unique projects.