John Nerge

John Nerge

Class Year

’09

Current home

Brooklyn Park, Minn.

Major(s)

Geography

Current Position

GIS Coordinator for the City of Brooklyn Park

At the City of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, John Nerge ’09 works with geospatial data (data with a location) to make web maps, perform data analysis, and tell stories. He helps the city’s departments to streamline their services.

“Carthage prepared me for my career by helping me to develop my critical thinking skills, and by providing me with experience interacting with a wide variety of professors, peers, and subjects.”

John Nerge, ’09

What have you enjoyed most about your career?

“I love that it allows me to combine my technical skills with my creative side to tell engaging, immersive stories using data and to make local government more effective at providing services.”

How did Carthage prepare you?

“Carthage prepared me for my career by helping me to develop my critical thinking skills, and by providing me with experience interacting with a wide variety of professors, peers, and subjects.”

How has your liberal arts education benefitted you?

“I use all of those skills in my job every day. I use critical thinking and attacking problems from multiple angles when dealing with a technical challenge like needing to write a computer script that will automate a process that will make my job easier. I have to learn constantly because my technical field is always evolving. Communication skills are critical for me as well, both for working with a wide variety of co-workers (from police officers to planners to assessors) and for using GIS to tell data stories to the general public and to call them to action and engage with local government.”


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