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B A C K   I N   T H E   D A Y     C A Y U G A   E L E M E N T A R Y     S A G A M O R E   J R   H I G H     S A C H E M   H I G H   S C H O O L

Before leaving for college, I spent my entire life growing up on Long Island, in southeastern New York. The regular hustle and bustle of life was occasionally broken by a vacation somewhere in the Northeast, or to see family in California, or trips into New York City. Basically my area was just normal suburbia, with only a few wooded areas remaining. There are really few boundaries noticable in my area, so I grew up somewhere between Centereach and Lake Ronkonkoma. Either way, I was in the middle of neighborhoods 50 miles from the city and surrounded by water on the other three sides. It's a fact of living on an island, even one as big as Long Island when you can't remember when you first went to the beach or count how many times you've been there. Through high school, I was involved in marching band, stage crew and spring track and field. During my senior year in high school I worked at the Lake Ronkonkoma Waldbaums and after coming back for the summer after my freshman year in college started at the Island 16 movie theater in Holtsville. I continued working there through college and interned at the offices for the B103 and WMJC radio stations in Farmingdale one summer.

T H E   C O L L E G E   Y E A R S     T H E   P E N N S Y L V A N I A   S T A T E   U N I V E R S I T Y

It was pretty clear among my friends in high school that I was obsessed with weather. When it came to applying to college, I mainly focused on applying to meteorology programs at SUNY schools (at one point I was sure I was attending Albany), Cornell, and one place I had not heard of or knew where it was, Penn State. My first visit basically gave me my answer, and I can not imagine having spent those four years anywhere else. I remember my shock at the size of the stadium on campus, and the age of the coach I had never heard of, Joe Paterno. I think everyone will agree I lived in a hole when it came to college football. Though it took some getting used to, I would definitely conclude these four years were ones I'll never forget. I did, however, realize that meteorology was not for me, and fortunetly ended up moving over to geography, where I focused on Physical Geography, especially climatology (my minor), and Geographic Information Science. I remember looking back when going into my sophomore year amazed at how everything you planned to do for your whole life can change in one year. Looking back now, I know I made the right choice.
Those four years were certainly the best days of my life. I met friends I'll know for the rest of my life. Experiences such as marching in the Blue Band, in front of crowds greater than 100,000 people are not easily forgotten. How many can say they've been on the field of 3 of the 4 largest stadiums in the country? (Beaver Stadium at Penn State, the Big House at Michigan and the Horseshoe at Ohio State). In addition, we went to the Orange Bowl my senior year, marched on the field at Dolphins Stadium and watched Penn State beat Florida State in triple overtime.

M O V I N G   O N   F A S T     C I V I L   S O L U T I O N S     B O W N E  M A N A G E M E N T  S Y S T E M S      S O U T H  C A R O L I N A

Life sometimes feels like a blur since graduating from Penn State in 2006. Everything has started to move at a fairly quick pace. Following graduation, I was hired by Civil Solutions as a Senior GIS technician, and found myself living and working in South Jersey. That fall, I decided to take a job that would return me to Long Island. Starting in October 2006, I began working at Bowne Management Systems in Mineola, NY. However, the following spring I decided to accept an offer to attend graduate school at the University of South Carolina, working on a Master's degree in Geography. The South has provided many new experiences that I otherwise would not have been exposed to. I am very fortunate that I have once again found myself with a good group of friends, which helps to balance the streses of grad school. I've spent my semester breaks back on Long Island working at Bowne. I intend to finish my degree in the summer of 2009, attempting to combine my thesis study in historical cyclones in New England with a web-based GIS application.

Updated: March 02, 2009