SU: My name is Su Coy.
I'm 40 years old, and I go to Palomar College
in San Marcos, California.
INSTRUCTOR 1: Su, see if you can figure out something
like the shelter capacity of San Diego County using GIS.
SU: OK.
My mom thought that the E was silent so you know,
you didn't need it, so that was pretty cool.
This is a problem already.
I'm an explorer, you know?
So I like to go do things.
INSTRUCTOR 1: I don't even know--
SU: It's going to be in your power settings.
I'm constantly trying to improve the Earth.
I think a lot about safety.
I study GIS.
GIS is geographical information systems, and to the layman,
let's just make it easy.
If you ever use Google Maps, that's GIS.
I got an A.
OK, here comes the honesty on this.
I was very lost for a long time, OK?
I had no direction and I never really thought
anything about education.
I ended up actually out on the streets.
I dabbled into things I shouldn't have,
and that is the turning point of my life.
I did not want to die and I knew that education would get me
to where I need to go.
I got my high school diploma and decided
to come to the community college to get an education.
INSTRUCTOR 2: GIS has now become this thing.
It's prolific across society, and I
think that's where we're headed with GIS.
It's just going to be so integrated with everything
else in society.
It's going to be a given.
People may not even know the words GIS and what
it stands for or anything, but they'll
be using it because it'll be just part of their life.
SU: You have at your hands the ability
to make anything from your favorite hiking
trail to doing something on a larger scale
as I have done when we had the Eagle Fire here last year.
NEWSCASTER: The eagle fire-- a massive brushfire
still burning in the East County.
SU: The Eagle Fire was a pretty dangerous situation
and it was encroaching onto one of the Indian reservations.
WOMAN: Hey, Su, come on.
SU: Hi, how are you?
WOMAN: Nice to see you.
SU: Nice to see you too.
WOMAN: Let's go look in the back.
SU: Through the ATE program, I
was able to intern with the Red Cross,
and they needed to have a shapefile for all
of their emergency supply locations across two counties.
They're going to have some problems of the fires coming
this way.
This is going to close off.
We're pushing everybody.
And they needed to know the best routes
where our shelters can be, where the fire's moving,
and if it's going to encroach on the reservations.
What I do take away from it is the satisfaction
in knowing that I have helped protect
the lives of many people, including the firefighters.
RED CROSS INSTRUCTOR: It's great to have your students, who are getting
this technical training that can benefit the projects that we're
trying to get done, to have them come in,
they know what they're doing, they get the project done,
and we've got great data to use.
INSTRUCTOR 2: What this has done has just allowed such
a nice broad connection across the whole community.
So that integrates the college with the local community
and really has done a great deal to kind of connect us
all together.
SU: I have had the benefits of seeing what
the ATE program can do for me.
Can you tell me a little bit more
about the fundamentals of it.
Where does the funding come from and such?
INSTRUCTOR 1: Oh, sure.
ATE stands for Advanced Technological Education
and it's a program that's funded by the National Science
Foundation.
And so in the ATE grant that was awarded to Palomar College,
they aimed to advanced geospatial technologies
in our community.
SU: As a student now, I have a 3.7 GPA in college.
My major influence is my mother.
She's a survivor.
She taught me how to become something that is worthwhile.
This is my Advanced Technological Education Student
Award for Excellence.
This may just be a paper to most.
But to me-- pardon me--
to me, this just tells me that if I
keep going that I will be someone,
and I will be an important part of society,
and I make a difference.
And that is important.
So there's this.
For anybody out there, if you don't know where you're going
or you feel like you're lost or you feel less than,
or you don't know how to start, what you need to do is actually
pick up the phone and call your local community college.
Believe me, people are willing to help.
I am standing here telling you that it can be done.
Anybody who has a dream, no matter what age,
it's attainable.
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