{"id":434752,"date":"2021-06-02T19:14:09","date_gmt":"2021-06-03T02:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcuser&p=434752"},"modified":"2022-03-02T22:27:59","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T06:27:59","slug":"roxana","status":"publish","type":"arcuser","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/roxana","title":{"rendered":"Using Where to Answer Why and How"},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[24972,421],"tags":[472461,276302,163022],"arcuser_issues":[474432],"class_list":["post-434752","arcuser","type-arcuser","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faces-of-gis","category-profile","tag-arcuser","tag-spatial-thinking","tag-teaching-gis","arcuser_issues-spring-2021"],"acf":{"short_description":"Roxana Ayala was introduced to GIS in high school and it has changed her life. ","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":434762,"file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"blockquote","content":"Roxana Ayala was introduced to GIS technology while working on a high school research project in 2013. GIS helped Ayala and her fellow students see their lived experience in a new light. This powerful technology helped her better understand the historically underserved neighborhood of Watts in the City of Los Angeles where she grew up, and Boyle Heights, another area of the city, where she went to school. Her connection to GIS has been guiding Ayala\u2019s career ever since."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":434792,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Two Mentors and a Changed Life<\/h3>\r\nWorking in teams to investigate a social justice topic, students at the Math, Science, and Technology Magnet Academy at Roosevelt High School engage GIS in their service learning projects to build a deeper understanding of their community.\r\n\r\nEmpowered by GIS-based research on their local neighborhoods and city, students began to ask that all-important question: Why? Teachers note that their students develop a maturity and a confidence through GIS projects that change the way they think.\r\n\r\nAlice Im and Mariana Ram\u00edrez, who both taught Ayala at Roosevelt High School, recall her as a bright student and a spirited, somewhat fearless kid. In Ayala, her teachers saw a smart teen who was always serious and engaged.\r\n\r\nWith their guidance, Ayala learned the power of plotting data-based analysis on a map in strikingly visual ways. Ayala\u2019s high school project focused on evaluating education inequalities. She saw the discrepancies in education, income, housing, health care, and environmental safety between her community and more financially secure neighborhoods.\r\n\r\n\u201cI love Roxy,\u201d said Im, an English teacher. \u201cAnd I think Mariana will back me up on this\u2026we have many, many students like this, where they are just so resilient and so capable of becoming these powerful, wonderful human beings.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cGIS helps them to really understand their community, so that their relationship with their community isn\u2019t a negative one, where they believe this is a terrible place that I need to escape,\u201d Im said. \u201cRather, it\u2019s like this is a really wonderful, beautiful place that has a lot of challenges, and that I can be a leader and I can transform it and take ownership.\u201d\r\n\r\n "},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":434802,"image_position":"left","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Asking Why<\/h3>\r\nLocation intelligence<\/a> made the student researchers even more alert to current events.\r\n\r\n\u201cOur students began to question the budget cuts that were happening systematically across the State of California,\u201d Ram\u00edrez said. \u201cAnd they were noticing how California, having one of the richest economies in the world, was undercutting the educational system, and they were asking why.\u201d\r\n\r\nThough currently pausing her teaching career to pursue a doctorate degree in education at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Ram\u00edrez is anxious to get back to teaching. She and Im believe that location intelligence from GIS can have a similar effect on students and teachers at other schools, especially in historically marginalized areas.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere\u2019s not enough examples of communities like ours that are in working-class, people-of-color neighborhoods that are engaging in this type of work,\u201d Ram\u00edrez said. \u201cSo I think one of our goals as teachers and educators and researchers is to one day put out some work on this for the educator community.\u201d\r\n\r\nTheir students\u2019 work, however, already has drawn attention. In 2013, Ayala and three other high school classmates presented their findings at the Esri User Conference in San Diego, California. Their work inspired GIS users from around the world. Since then, the students from Roosevelt High School have made an annual trip to the Esri campus in Redlands, California, to share how GIS enhances their understanding.\r\n\r\nAs Ayala entered the University of California, Irvine, her skill with GIS, a technology few of her peers even knew about, opened new opportunities for her. She frequently used GIS in courses she took on her way to earning a bachelor\u2019s degree in environmental science and urban studies. She also completed a summer internship at the University of Minnesota, using GIS to analyze manufactured homes across the United States and their vulnerability to environmental factors such as flooding and air pollution.\r\n\r\nHer passion to make a difference has continued to drive her work. Ayala now conducts research and provides technical assistance at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a Washington, DC-based nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization that aids in advancing energy efficiency policies, programs, technologies, investments, and behaviors. She began at ACEEE with the assistance of the Roger Arliner Young (RAY) Diversity Fellowship Program. [The RAY Diversity Fellowship Program supports conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy-related career pathways for emerging leaders of color.]<\/em>\r\n\r\nShe is most concerned with energy equity. \u201cClean energy-related efforts that are developed in an equitable, just, and fair manner can offer many benefits, especially to marginalized and Black, Indigenous, and people-of-color communities,\u201d Ayala said. \u201cAs we work to develop recommendations for policy makers, utilities, and other key stakeholders in the clean energy industry, we must ensure that these efforts reduce energy costs; promote the health, safety, and well-being of people; and work towards reducing carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.\u201d\r\n\r\nLast year, Ayala and her colleagues published Expanding Opportunity through Energy Efficiency Jobs: Strategies to Ensure a More Resilient, Diverse Workforce, a report that examines energy efficiency workforce development programs that emphasize diversity and inclusion.\r\n

The Value of a Geospatial Approach<\/h3>\r\n\u201cI still approach problems using the geospatial critical-thinking techniques I learned in high school,\u201d said Ayala. \u201cIt has become the foundation for my research method\u2014looking for relationships and connections.\u201d In her policy work, Ayala said she makes a point of focusing on equity-centered strategies that will promote diversity, justice, and inclusion so that everyone has access to the benefits of programs and policies.\r\n\r\nThat underscores something her former teachers, Im and Ram\u00edrez, have noticed when their students talk about possible careers. \u201cA lot of our very talented young people are saying, \u2018I would like to go into public policy, and I would like to go into work like that where I get to make certain types of decisions about how things are managed and how resources are distributed,\u2019\u201d Im said.\r\n\r\nRam\u00edrez added that when students get excited about turning research into policy and policy into action, they inspire their mentors. \u201cWe\u2019re constantly also growing and learning from them about their imaginings of how we can create a better future for youth and people of color.\u201d\r\n

GIS Maps the Way Back Home<\/h3>\r\nGIS provided a career path that led Ayala to opportunities outside her neighborhood, but it has also provided a road back to that community.\r\n\r\n\u201cI struggled with outside factors and many systemic barriers to get to the place I\u2019m at now,\u201d Ayala said. \u201cPeople in my community lacked adequate resources but helped me in other ways. My success has been a community effort, with many mentors, friends, family members, and individuals that helped me along the way. I also worked very hard.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe school and community support she received helps Ayala see herself as someone who can give back to her old neighborhood. On a recent visit, she toured the area with her former teachers. Ayala pointed out polluted spots and food deserts but also beautiful murals that make her proud\u2014and, in turn\u2014make her former teachers proud.\r\n\r\nRam\u00edrez said that they all seemed to share a similar point of view shaped by GIS. \u201cHow can we create a better living and learning opportunity for all the youth that live here in my neighborhood? And how do we enrich this place for them and for their future?\u201d she said.\r\n\r\nLearn more about using GIS to teach K\u201312 students<\/a> and the free teaching resources available from Esri."}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"\nEarly exposure to GIS transforms problem solving skills<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Roxana Ayala\u2019s GIS work in high school shapes the way she thinks and has been guiding her studies and career.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/roxana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Using Where to Answer Why and How\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Roxana Ayala\u2019s GIS work in high school shapes the way she thinks and has been guiding her studies and career.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/roxana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Esri\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-03T06:27:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2021\/05\/roxana_banner.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Esri\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n\t \"@graph\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"WebPage\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/roxana\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/roxana\",\n\t \"name\": \"Early exposure to GIS transforms problem solving skills\",\n\t \"isPartOf\": {\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website\"\n\t },\n\t \"datePublished\": \"2021-06-03T02:14:09+00:00\",\n\t \"dateModified\": \"2022-03-03T06:27:59+00:00\",\n\t \"description\": \"Roxana Ayala\u2019s GIS work in high school shapes the way she thinks and has been guiding her studies and career.\",\n\t \"breadcrumb\": {\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/roxana#breadcrumb\"\n\t },\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t \"potentialAction\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ReadAction\",\n\t \"target\": [\n\t \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/roxana\"\n\t ]\n\t }\n\t ]\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"BreadcrumbList\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/roxana#breadcrumb\",\n\t \"itemListElement\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t \"position\": 1,\n\t \"name\": \"Home\",\n\t \"item\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\"\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t \"position\": 2,\n\t \"name\": \"Using Where to Answer Why and How\"\n\t }\n\t ]\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"WebSite\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/\",\n\t \"name\": \"Esri\",\n\t \"description\": \"Esri Newsroom\",\n\t \"potentialAction\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"SearchAction\",\n\t \"target\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"EntryPoint\",\n\t \"urlTemplate\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"\n\t },\n\t \"query-input\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"PropertyValueSpecification\",\n\t \"valueRequired\": true,\n\t \"valueName\": \"search_term_string\"\n\t }\n\t }\n\t ],\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\"\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"Person\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/82e5143bcdebadf8fd64d84e503ca468\",\n\t \"name\": \"Monica Pratt\",\n\t \"image\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"ImageObject\",\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2018\/08\/MonicaMug_agol2.jpg\",\n\t \"contentUrl\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2018\/08\/MonicaMug_agol2.jpg\",\n\t \"caption\": \"Monica Pratt\"\n\t },\n\t \"description\": \"Monica Pratt is the founding and current editor of ArcUser magazine, the executive editor of ArcNews magazine, the editor of Esri Globe and head of the Publications team at Esri. 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