The experiences I have had in the graduate pathway program have been very valuable to me. I was not adapt to the new study environment at the beginning. When I first arrived, I knew little about graduate study in United States and was not confident in myself. Because English is a foreign language, it always took me a long time to finish reading materials. Everything was so unfamiliar. Fortunately, the four courses I took aided me a lot. PROV 504 taught me efficient reading strategies like don’t read word by word and grasp the main content in one article, as well as introduced how to get support from library. EAP 508 taught me a lot about how to treat materials not as information but as text and how to get useful information in one paper to involve in my own research. The assignments like search resource list, academic outline network in PROV 504, 10 summary of academic paper and literature review in EAP 508 give me a chance to broaden my knowledge of volunteered geographic information and to comprehend the development and current issues of volunteered geographic information. Additionally, two academic courses improved my professional skills. By taking the GGS 553 course, I could make good maps and give transportation analysis in Arcgis. By taking GGS 560, I learned how to analyze geodata by using statistic methods. During my studies this semester, I have gained a better understanding of my field and developed a specific interest in this area.
In the future, I hope to study further in volunteered geographic information using it in disaster management. With the preparation in both academic knowledge and learning ability, I am ready to study deep in the GIS field.