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John Swann in his own words - Jailhouse Geography
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What factors influenced John in his choice of geography as the starting point on his career path? John has always had a love for the outdoors, nature, and traveling. "Growing up I was exposed to different places and cultures while living in places like Israel, Southeast Asia, and Australia," he says. His love for the outdoors and nature ultimately led him to geography. His first passion, however, was filmmaking. “I've always had a desire to make documentaries, to allow others who may not otherwise have the opportunity, to share in the beauty, dynamics, and wonder of the natural environment,” John says. Working in film, as a location scout, John had to consider such things as climate, topography, and environment of the location for exterior shooting. It was through these "geographic" considerations that he began to develop an interest in geography. John began college at the University of Texas at Austin majoring in film, but because of his developing interests in Geography, he decided to pursue a double major, and ultimately received a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and a Bachelor of Science in Radio -Television - Film. Before graduating, John had to make a choice. "I wanted a career that I would find personally and professionally satisfying," he says, and in the balance, a career in geography seemed the better choice. Getting back to prison¼John is the supervisor of multiple GIS projects at ESU. ESU provides meaningful training and work opportunities for inmates during their incarceration. Heads-up digitizing, data editing, raster-to-vector conversion, database development, color plotting, scanning, and coordinate geometry are some of the services provided by ESU. The inmates with ESU have also worked on projects to examine water rights, water and sewer, watersheds, land use, wild life habitat, forestry diseases, and constructed plans. This unusual environment brings many challenges as well as opportunities. “I knew that this job was going to be challenging and definitely a unique environment,” says John, “Coming out of college, I wanted the challenge.” His logic, “I think if you can work in a prison, then you can work anywhere.” He has also been able to gain important managerial skills, an opportunity which may not have presented itself had he accepted a position somewhere else. “I was able to move quickly into a supervisory position, which is an unlikely opportunity for someone straight out of college.” “Many counties do not have GIS staff and don't know what they want as an end GIS database,” says Swann, “So, we conduct a pilot that completes five to ten percent of the total project.” Based on the pilot, the county can decide what kind of a GIS database they want and since the pilot gives a good estimate of the cost, if the GIS will be within their budget. Probably the biggest challenge John faces is trying to operate a GIS production shop within a correctional facility. “It can be very difficult at times because we have to enforce rules, policies, and security guidelines in the supervision of inmates and for security, ” he says, “of course, this is for our safety and a part of where we work, but often I feel like I'm working two completely different jobs.” “Making my job work is satisfying,” says John, “I mean, we are trying to run a business inside a correctional facility and when we can do that – it is satisfying,” John certainly uses geography everyday. “We work with ARC/Info, the COGO and GRID modules, ArcView, MicroStation SE, Visual Basic, and AutoCAD,” he says, “I recommend that students attend a school where you can pick and choose your courses and look forward to determine the skills that you will need to enter the workforce.” John Swann is a geographer who can make it anywhere and shows us that geography has a place and a need just about everywhere. Having the proper skills is just one tool used to face the daily challenges on the job. |
