San Diego Mesa College Geographic Information Systems (GIS) student interns are putting their skills to work in the community through a partnership with Friends of the 32nd Street Canyon.
Psychology major Emerald Moreno is inspired by a passion for understanding and interpreting others, along with a deep faith that psychology is her calling. She plans to transfer to a university to earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology, minor in Spanish, and continue exploring a future in law.
After a major surgery and months of recovery, Tracey Kushner faced a decision that would reshape her future. In 2024, she returned to San Diego Mesa College determined to finish the degree she had started years earlier.
SAN DIEGO, Calif. — San Diego Mesa College proudly celebrated the achievements of the Class of 2026 during its annual Commencement Ceremony on Friday, May 29, 2026, honoring 1,958 graduates who earned more than 2,017 academic degrees and 414 certificates. A total of 727 graduates participated in the ceremony, joined by family, friends, faculty, staff, and community supporters.
May 17, 2018
This May, Navy Veteran and Mesa College student Nicholas William Case was selected by the National Geospatial Technology Center of Excellence (GeoTech Center) as a winner in the 2018 GeoTech Center’s Geospatial Technology Student Competition. This summer on June 4 to 6, the GeoTech Center will host Case and other selected students at the GeoEd ’18 Workshops to be held in Louisville, KY on the Southwest Campus of Jefferson Community and Technical College.
Case will participate in various workshops and attend events hosted by the GeoTech Center. He plans on attending three events – Drones and Data Analysis, Python Mapping, and Humanitarian Mapping. Case shares, “I am most excited for the Python Mapping workshop… I hope to learn how to automate my workflow.”
Among the several student submissions they received, Case was chosen as the second place winner among community and technical colleges and chosen as the winner of the use of open source software. He has spent his recent time at Mesa working towards his Associate of Science Degree in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and used his knowledge to work on preparing his projects for student based competitions like this.
Case has a strong interest in archaeology and was interested to see how the, “utilization of new technology to document and preserve archaeological data” could allow archaeologists to complete their work without facing barriers like financial costs or time conflicts. His previous education – an Associate of Arts in Anthropology from Mesa, and his Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from SDSU – have served him well in creating an academic foundation for his career goals that are tying in to his GIS studies.
For his Open Source Software project, he used OpenDataKit which provided him with a server – ODK Aggregate Virtual Machine – that allowed him to configure the system to this specific study and the field objectives. Through the GIS software and the document methods he used, he was able to display the necessary information, and keep it available with recorded reports that are accessible to other archaeology and geography associates in the industry. To see Case’s Open Source Software project, please visit his online portfolio: Digital Archaeology in Mongolia: Visualizing the Data.
For more information on Mesa’s GIS Program and ongoing student projects, please contact Department Chair Carlos Toth at [email protected]. To learn more about Anthropology and Archaeology educational opportunities, please visit the Anthropology Program page.
Tags: Geographic Information System, GeoEd '18 Workshops, National Geospatial Technology Center of Excellence, GIS, GeoTech Center
Jennifer Nichols Kearns
Director of Communications
[email protected]
(619) 388-2759
San Diego Mesa College Geographic Information Systems (GIS) student interns are putting their skills to work in the community through a partnership with Friends of the 32nd Street Canyon.
This May, Navy Veteran and Mesa College student Nicholas William Case was selected by the National Geospatial Technology Center of Excellence (GeoTech Center) as a winner in the 2018 GeoTech Center’s Geospatial Technology Student Competition. This summer on June 4 to 6, the GeoTech Center will host Case and other selected students at the GeoEd ’18 Workshops to be held in Louisville, KY on the Southwest Campus of Jefferson Community and Technical College.
