[Lisa Matthies]  Geographic information system is what G I S stands for and I think that the program that we have here at Erie Community College is a very strong program.  Number one, we have an excellent supply of computer equipment for students to use.  We have many computer labs that have state of the art software on them for doing G I S work.  We are using primarily ESRI Arc G I S software, which is an industry standard software program.  So the courses that I teach are hands on, computer intensive programs.  You do not have to have a lot of computer skills when you start the program.  A lot of time you say G I S to somebody, they hear information systems and they think that they have to be a computer programmer to take a class in G I S and you really don't have to, this is what the course is for.  You start out with an introductory course, you learn how to do some hands on computer work, but you also start to get to a sense of spatial thinking and spatial literacy, understanding where things are located and why they are located where they are.

[Lisa Matthies]  For our core program we have three courses that we offer, a program in an introduction to geographic information systems, a G I S skills and techniques is the second course and the third course is advanced topics in G I S.

The G I S certificate program is a very flexible program for students.  We are setting up courses right now during the day at each one of the three campuses, at City, at North and at South.  We also offer evening courses for students that are working full time and we are starting to offer these courses online.

[Kathleen Zynda] Here is your zoom in, zoom out, your pan, your identify tool, your find, and you've got the ability to measure.

[Lisa Matthies]  The job outlook right now for people with G I S certificates is really fantastic.  The U S Department of Labor has named geo-spatial technology as one of the top four high growth industries in the United States.  So it is a great field to get into right now.  There are quite a few job openings in geographic information systems currently.

Once you have that certificate in G I S you can get a job as a G I S technician, which is sort of an entry level position at an engineering firm, at an environmental consulting firm, in doing mapping work for these companies.

[Lisa Matthies]  Every G I S job that I have ever had, I've had to digitize data, edit data, edit the attribute table.  So the things that you are going to be learning today is very relevant in the G I S world.  

[Lisa Matthies]  My goal in working with students at E C C is to make sure that they get real world, practical experience.  I want to make sure that our students coming out of the program understand how to use the software so that they can go out and get a job or that they can use this software to pursue other interests that they have.