10 Jul Meet Geospatial Data Analyst Resource Assistant Angela Fiorito

Hello! My name is Angela Fiorito and welcome to my Environment for the Americas Resource Assistant Cohort 7 blog. The Resource Assistants Program is a rigorous and immersive internship that engages underrepresented groups in natural resource management with the U.S. Forest Service. I will be working remotely for the Washington Office in Cooperative Fire for eight months.

My background: I graduated in May 2022 from Texas Tech University with an M.S. in geosciences and a graduate certificate in geographic information science and technology. Illinois is my home state; I went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for a B.S. in geology with a minor in integrative biology and I received my A.S. from Waubonsee Community College. My hobbies include playing my viola and harp, running, and hiking. I have three cuddly black cats and one rambunctious chinchilla.

Fun Fact: This is my second Environment for the Americas internship. Last summer I spent three months in Denali National Park as a GIS Assistant in the Mosaics in Science program. In my free time, I enjoyed hiking and taking photographs of wildlife. I wrote blogs for that internship too!

Cohort 7 is the second cohort to have orientation in person. Since I will be working remotely, it was great to meet the other interns at Copper Mountain before starting. I am looking forward to applying my geology and GIS experience to Cooperative Fire and learning more about the U.S. Forest Service.