The website and blog are now up and running! Version 1.0 of this webiste was the product of a 1.5 week sprint, where I went from knowing nothing about web development or GitHub pages to having a fully-functional website with a respectable about of content and features. Here’s how I got started!

Just before spring break, I reached out to my Geography professor, Dr. Marynia Kolak for some advice on finding GIS-related internships. She recommended that I showcase the GIS work I’ve already done on GitHub.

At the time, I thought that GitHub was only a platform for software developers to showcase their code. But I soon realized that it was much more freeform.

I learned from Dr. Kolak that GitHub was an iterative space, where I could upload unfinished work and continually update it over time. This was completely opposite to life as a college student, where you iterate privately and only submit polished work to others. With that in mind, I made my debut on GitHub.

I setup a couple repositories for the my major personal and academic projects from my GIS classes. Then, Dr. Kolak suggested I go further and create a GitHub Page.

This is where my foray into web development started. I spent a full day just figuring out how to get started. It took me a while to setup my environment and understand how Jekyll converted a repository into a seamless website using the basic Minima theme and a whole bunch of Markdown pages. Then, I could start thinking about the site itself.

After a couple hours of tinkering I became comfortable with creating new webpages and blog posts in Markdown, so I started writing content.

The website is meant to be a place where readers can learn more about me and the Geography and Marketing projects I’ve worked on. Readers can drill down to as much detail as they wish, similar to a news article. Even if readers only visit one page, they (hopefully) still get a general overview of who I am and what I do.

With thoes goals in mind, I look forward to adding content and updating the site regularly. Look out for more information about an upcoming project in R for my GIS III class, and some more custom CSS/HTML on v.1.1 of the site.

I’d like to thank Dr. Kolak for giving me the idea for this website and being such a valuable resource to students like me.

Sincerely, Lorenz M.