Webinar: Non-Academic Geography Career Paths for International Students in the U.S.
Date and Time: Tuesday, November 16, 2021 3:00 pm - 4:15 pm U.S. Eastern Time
Are you an international student in a U.S. geography (or related) program, worrying about how to secure a non-academic position in private industry or government? As an international student, you will not only need to adapt to a new environment, but also put more effort and advance planning into your career. International students remaining in the United States often choose academic careers for various reasons, including strong academic aspirations, an “easier” path to acquiring H1-B sponsorship, and so forth. But what if you are interested to work outside of academia and want to stick to your career goals?
The AAG would like to support young geographers concerning this challenge. This session will support non-academic career exploration and planning for international undergraduate and graduate students in the U.S., featuring six volunteer panelists from government and private industry who will share their insights followed by the discussion questions below, address audience questions in an open Q&A portion, and (if time permits) provide small-group career mentoring in breakout rooms.
Bandana Kar, the webinar chair plans to ask a few discussion questions, such as:
(1) What brought you into geography in the first place, why did you decide to choose a non-academic career path, and what knowledge or skills has your academic training best prepared you for the non-academic job market?
(2) Where have you typically sought career opportunities, resources and support (e.g., websites, communities, mentors, etc.), and how did you find your current job and secure the work visa? if you encountered any challenges, how did you overcome them?
(3) Any there any open job opportunities from your current company, that our audience can apply to? From your knowledge, what are the general career opportunities from your or other sectors that non-U.S. citizens can apply to?
(4) Looking back, what is something you’d wish you’d known early as an international student looking to start their school or career in the U.S.? What is your advice for the other international students who aspire to a non-academic career path?
As an audience member, you will have the ability to ask questions. This webinar will be set-up as a Zoom “Meeting” to allow anyone to unmute themselves and/or show their camera to ask questions to panelists directly. You will also be able to ask questions through the chatbox.
We look forward to "meeting" you soon!
Bandana Kar
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Suparna Das
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Michael Li
BP
Sarmistha Chatterjee
Esri
Zhengcong Yin
Esri
Hao Hu
Facebook
Bandana Kar Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Bandana Kar () is a Senior Research Scientist and the Group Lead of the Built Environment Characterization Group in the National Security Sciences Directorate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She deploys geospatial and computational sciences along with static and dynamic big datasets to develop impact driven tools and algorithms in the domain of resilient cities and infrastructures. She was the recipient of the 2019 Emerging Scholar Award from the American Association of Geographers and was a fellow of the 2009 National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Enabling the Next Generation of Hazards and Disasters Researchers Fellowship Program. She has been funded by NSF, DHS, DOE and NASA.
Suparna Das Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Suparna Das () is Branch Chief (TSB/DSDC/CBHSQ) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). She is an experienced spatial statistician and demographer with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry and Government. Skilled in Spatial Epidemiology, Quantitative Methods, Network modeling, Research Design, Data Collection, Infectious Diseases, Behavioral Health and Policy Analysis.
Michael Li BP
Michael Li () is a geospatial digital graduate at BP. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign with M.S. in Geography and a dual B.S in Geography and Geophysics in 2020 and 2019. His current role in bp involves geospatial data management, workflow automation, and business product development.
Sarmistha Chatterjee Esri
Sarmistha Chatterjee () is a Senior Product Engineer in the raster analysis group at Esri, and works on raster and scientific multidimensional data analysis. Her primary interest is in the application of GIS for environmental and climate change analysis to study changes for conservation and improved decision making. Sarmistha completed her Doctoral degree in Geography researching on fluvial geomorphology, water resources and spatial modeling, from the University of Delaware before joining Esri. Prior to that, she worked at the Stroud Water Research Center, Kansas State University and Delhi School of Economics researching on water resources and spatial analysis.
Zhengcong Yin Esri
Zhengcong Yin () is a software developer at Esri. He graduated from Texas A&M University with Ph.D. in Geography and M.S. in Civil Engineering in 2021 and 2016, and his B.S. degree from China in 2013. His research interests include geocoding, location search, and GeoAI.
Hao Hu Facebook
Hao Hu () is a Software Engineer at Facebook, working on building mapping infrastructure for AR/VR platforms. Before joining Facebook, he worked at Esri as a Product Engineer. He obtained his Doctoral degree in Geography from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) with the research focus on high-performance geospatial computing and machine learning. He held a M.S. degree from University at Buffalo and a B.S. degree from Nanjing University, China.
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Non-Academic Geography Career Paths for International Students in the U.S.
Description
Date and Time: Tuesday, November 16, 2021 3:00 pm - 4:15 pm U.S. Eastern Time
Status: Event Ended
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