As soon as I read the guidelines for the final project, I knew I wanted to do something in ArcGIS. I had always been fascinated by the idea of the spatial humanities and it had been a goal of mine to learn ArcGIS to a point where I felt comfortable teaching it to other people. By completing this project, I hope to improve my knowledge of ArcGIS.
As a History major, I also wanted to complete a project that emphasized change over time. I believe our analysis of the Career Center and Admissions data will provide valuable insights into the shifting demographics of Carleton alumni, particularly in terms of space and career pathways. I am also interested to see how important of a factor a robust local alumni network is for students in making their decision to come to Carleton, and to what extent the alumni network influences where students go after Carleton. My hypothesis is that the two maps will be very similar as they shape one another.
Most importantly, by completing this process, I hope to improve my ability to find meaningful patterns in data and communicate this information to the public. I think the presentation of the data will be the most challenging and the most rewarding part of the process for me as I strive to inform others in an accessible manner.
