Dr. Tom G. Holst

1. My GIS and related Experiences:
   
   • I took an Intro to GIS course from Stanislaus State Univ. Turlock
     
   • I spent 6 months as a volunteer under the GIS manager at Condor Earth Technologies, Inc. in Sonora, CA, learining GIS and GPS.
     
   • I have just completed the process of planning and implementing a two year certificate program in GIS at Columbia College and I am familiar with the process as well as the problems that we encountered.
     
   • I co-authored and was awarded a "Funds for Improvement of Instruction Grant" (FII) to establish a GIS program at Columbia College. This grant has now been completed.
     
   • I recently completed a small handbook describing the process of inaugurating a new GIS program at the Community College level, and this has already been distributed to a number of community colleges.
     
   • I recently hosted a group of interested instructors and administrators from Sierra College who were interested in starting their own GIS program.
     
   • I participated in the panel discussion on GIS at 2 year colleges during a GIS-LIS Conference in Phoenix, AZ on October 25-27, 1994.
     
   • I am currently serving as a volunteer at Columbia College to help encorporate a new Ashtech Global Positioning System into our GIS/GPS, Natural Resources, and Surveying Programs.
     
   • I retired from full-time teaching on May 25, 1996 and I now expect to have enough time to devote to worthy projects such as this.
     
   • I have been invited to participate in the Working Group for the GIS Core Curriculum for Technical Programs Working Session which will be held immediately after this Symposium.
     
   
   
2. Columbia College currently teaches 4 courses in GIS through the Computer Science Department. They are:
   
   
   
   • Intro to GIS - ArcCAD
     
   • GIS Applications (vector)
     
   • Raster GIS
     
   • Raster Applications
     
   
   
   
3. Our students typically have come from our high school and college drafting programs, Some have been from local government and industry, and a few have been GIS students from Stanislaus State University.
   
   
4. We have a GIS certificate program which includes these and other courses which we feel are of benefit to the students.
   
   
5. All of our GIS courses include a portion that deals with theory, but they are all heavily geared toward practical applications. We are preparing GIS technicians.
   
   
6. GIS-based research relates to our students and courses mostly wherever such research affects the software we are using.
   
   
7. I hope to see the evolution of an articulation between the various educational levels which will encorporate the participation of GIS businesses and other organizations who employ our graduates and certificate holders. It is especially important for our certificate holders that we include input from GIS employees who actually do the work that our students will be doing.
   

Very soon, we expect to offer a new course in Watershed Management which will incorporate GIS activities. Also we will be incorporating GPS into our GIS curriculum as well as Surveying, Botany and other courses.