Hi, I’m Jessi Krugger. Yes, you pronounce my last name like Freddy from Nightmare on Elm Street. I’m 26, and currently live in the middle of nowhere, also known as Independence, WV. I grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania and attended PSU Behrend for a while. I decided Erie was not where I wanted to be, so I transferred to WVU Spring of 2011. I got sick of the drunk kids in Morgantown, so I moved as far away from civilization as I could get without losing cell service entirely, and so here I am. I am currently a private math and science tutor at the high school level, as I switched out of a Physics major previously. I’d like to pursue a career in grid-level energy storage at the DOE or do some work on alternative energy upon graduating this program. Batteries and math make me so happy, and I love it. While this course is required, I’ve always taken an interest in this sort of thing, because one of the fellow nerds I chat with often on martini night at my local brewpub is a GIS tech for the West Virginia Geologic and Economic Survey. It’ll be really nice to have more to contribute not only to those conversations but also the global conversations on climate change and our environment. I’m a data nut, so to be able to see trends on different scales in a better way will be awesome. Now that I’ve painted myself to be an uppity old man, I’ll further develop that happy little scene down below, much like a modern Bob Ross.

The issue that rings truest for me here in WV that can be looked at through the lens of geography has to be coal mining, and how it has adversely affected the beautiful mountain landscape, as well as the various watersheds via acid mine drainage. I’d imagine you could use GIS in addition to data gathered from field studies to paint a pretty grim picture of the landscape and how it has changed in the last few decades. Additionally, it could be used later to monitor cleanup.