Raba Kistner Environmental Planner/GIS Data Analyst, Clint Leffere, is currently mentoring a student, Jaselle Reginaldo, from Brandeis High School, who is participating in the Northside ISD Independent Study Mentorship (ISM) program. The program encourages students to investigate a career field and gain real-life work experience while completing their high school coursework. The mentorship opportunity can help facilitate a successful transition from high school to college, strengthening students’ skills in communication, decision-making, and time management. Jaselle is interested in studying Environmental Science when she graduates high school and enrolls in college, and was paired up with Raba Kistner to see what the profession was like from direct experience.
Clint began working with Jaselle about six weeks ago and the internship will run to the end of the school year, which will last about 12 more weeks. She comes to our San Antonio office for one hour every week and Clint has been teaching her about all of the different aspects of our environmental division of our firm, including: environmental assessments, wetland delineations, archaeology/cultural resources, geology, wildlife habitat analysis, geographic information systems (GIS) and drafting and report preparation.
In order to obtain credit for an honors elective class and a speech credit, Jaselle was tasked to come up with a project that she will present at the end of the school year. Her project is required to conduct extensive background research and then design and present an original product with a real-world purpose. After reviewing all of the different services that we provide within our Environmental department she decided to focus on GIS and traffic noise. Jaselle is currently working with Clint to conduct a hypothetical traffic noise analysis and will be ready to present their findings at the end of the school year in a formal presentation to her teachers and peers.