My Purpose and Role in Rules of Engagement

As a resident of South Carolina and someone who is studying planning, I have a vested interest in molding the communities of the state for their long-term future. As a planning student, I have not had a true opportunity to collaborate with other departments, and I feel collaboration and understanding the perspectives of different fields is an extremely important skill that I must have upon entering the workforce. I also feel it is important for me to gain experience working with the public. Reading books and working on theoretical projects is great, but it will not show me how the process works on the ground, what the conflicts are, or the means to resolve or attempt to resolve underlying problems. I hope that this course will bring me the skills I need to address the public, teach me how not to reveal my biases, and learn how to establish a good rapore with a community.

Some of the skills that I can bring to the table include: GIS experience, surveying experience, and plan writing experience. In the last year, I have thoroughly learned how to use GIS and where to obtain good GIS data for the state. I also know how to create data layers, which may come in handy for analyzing community conditions and opinions. In addition to GIS knowledge, I have taken a quantitative analysis course that thought me how to write an unbiased or leading survey, along with how to analyze the results from the survey. While I may be a little rusty on excel applications, I should still be able to determine how to do correlations between responses. I hope to be able to assist in inputting and analyzing the survey responses. Last year, I also had the opportunity to work with a team of three other students to create a comprehensive plan for Anderson County. In the beginning, I truly questioned our ability to produce a product better than the county. By the time the semester ended, we had far exceeded the quality of the existing Anderson County Comprehensive Plan. This gives me great confidence in incorporating my GIS skills, survey collection and analytical skills, and study of existing conditions to create a quality plan for Bamberg. I look forward to working on this project!