GEO & ENS Career Night is from 5 to 7 P.M Wednesday, Feb. 4.
Join a panel of alumni and professionals for a night dedicated to kickstarting your career. We'll be meeting in-person from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4, at the Stuckert Career Center on campus.
We will review resumes with a career counselor. Also, make sure to dress professionally to receive a new professional headshot for your LinkedIn profile. Then stay for a panel discussion with alumni from UK GEO and ENS discussing their career path after graduation.
Enjoy light refreshments as you network and learn from others in the field.
| Alyssa Hargis, MPH (UK '22) is a manager at the Alzheimer's Association in Washington, D.C.,, where she manages community engagement and brain health promotion across the DC metro area. After earning her ENS degree from UK, Alyssa pursued a Master of Public Health degree from George Washington University. Alyssa is particularly interested in how built environments influence health and well-being. During her studies at UK, Alyssa interned at the Kentucky Department of Public Health as a part of the Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, which earned her the honor of the University of Kentucky Spring 2022 Intern of the Year. |
Benjamin Applegate began working for the Kentucky Energy and Environmental Cabinet after earning a bachelors of geography in 2022. His first role was as a geoprocessing specialist with the states brownfield program. Seeking a role with more field work, he then joined the state's Superfund Branch as an environmental scientist. Ben ' manages several Superfund sites around the state and is responsible that all sites are being managed or are being remediated in a manner that protects human and environmental health. Projects include an arsenic contaminated soil removal in Western Kentucky, groundwater contamination characterizations, and environmental investigations of possible Superfund sites. Ben works closely with the members of the public, local officials and environmental consultants to ensure that the proper steps are being taken to meet the states regulations.
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Evan R. Sweet, AICP (UK '14) is the director of neighborhood planning and operations at the Meatpacking District Management Association in New York, where he leads award-winning public realm and planning projects that are reshaping one of Manhattan's most dynamic neighborhoods. After earning his Masters in Urban Planning from Columbia University, Evan has spent almost a decade delivering major policy initiatives, including congestion pricing, multiple neighborhood-wide rezonings to support housing development and construction of the UBS Arena at Belmont Park. After graduating from UK, Evan worked in economic development in Central Kentucky, where he supported downtown revitalization efforts, and managed a 144-acre industrial park for the Paris-Bourbon County Economic Development Authority, which earned him the honor of Kentucky Colonel in 2015. |
| Hayden McNeil, MBA, PMP (UK ’13) is a commercial operations manager at Wabtec Corp., a Fortune 500 company providing innovative solutions for freight and passenger railroads worldwide. In this role, he leads strategic procurement and contract efforts, building on prior experience with organizations such as The Walt Disney Co., EF Education First and R. J. Corman Railroad Group. He holds a B.A. in geography, an M.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from Michigan State University. Throughout his academic career, he completed four student programs with the National Park Service, ultimately serving on-site at Rocky Mountain National Park and Cuyahoga Valley National Park. | Sarah Roach graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in geography and a minor in GIS. She started at the Fayette County Property Valuation Administrator’s Office as a GIS intern and now works as a GIS manager. Her job includes improving GIS workflows, maintaining accurate public property data and managing parcel boundary changes for more than100,000 parcels across the county. This work helps ensure fair property valuation and provides reliable data that supports local services. |
Geography: The Science of Place and Space
Geographers ask where things are located on the surface of the Earth, why they are located where they are, how places differ from one another and how people interact with the environment. A major in geography analyzes and explains the location of and interrelationships between human and physical features of the Earth’s environment. Geographers also examine how and why features and their locations change over time with particular interest in the many impacts of these changes on both people and natural settings.
Geography is, therefore, both a social and a physical science. Because its fundamental subject matter is people and their environments, the discipline serves as an effective bridge between the physical and cultural worlds. Majors in geography build solid academic foundations that draw from and interrelate with areas of study from the natural, social and behavioral sciences, humanities, computer science, design and communication. The Department of Geography has developed three major tracks: environment, mapping & GIS, and cities & societies. Undergraduate geography degrees include a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science degree; graduate degree include the Master of Arts degree and Doctor of Philosophy degree.
What skills does studying geography develop?
- Aptitude for understanding current local and global issues.
- Knowledge of the influence of humans on the environment.
- Spatial analysis.
- Geographic information technologies.
- International and global perspectives on environmental, social, cultural, economic, and political issues.
- Interdisciplinary collaboration.
Undergraduate education requirements:
https://geography.as.uky.edu/geography-undergraduate-program.
Graduate education requirements:
https://geography.as.uky.edu/geography-graduate-program.
Geography Career Opportunities
A degree in geography is useful for students wishing to pursue a postgraduate education as well as enter such careers as earth and environmental sciences, economic development, environmental management, international trade, transportation analysis and planning, diplomacy, government administration from local to federal levels, market analysis, urban and regional planning, research, teaching, cartography, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and private business. Other occupations include but are not limited to the following:
- International area specialist.
- Business site selection.
- Cartographer.
- GIS analyst.
- Environmental scientist.
- Geoscientist.
- Teacher.
- Environmental planner.
- Natural resource manager.
- Geographer.
- Geopolitical analyst.
- Hydrologist.
- Intelligence analyst.
- Land use planner/analyst.
- Marketing analyst.
- Urban/regional planner.
- Community developer.
- Technical writer.
For more information about career opportunities, contact the UK Stuckert Career Center.