Excellence Marks the Spot

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Explore four other exceptional graduates who forged different paths and overcame obstacles to reach their goals.

The maps tell a story.

Rising mountains or winding rivers, broad plains or dense forests, tiny towns or soaring cities — when laid out across the surface of a map, each point and landmark coalesces to paint a sprawling picture of our world and tells us how to navigate it.

Beyond that, maps and charts have led pirates to buried treasure, adventurers through hidden caves, rescuers to stranded hikers and astronauts across the starry expanses of space.

With a map in hand, one will never truly be lost.

And for Kyle Webber, maps have helped chart a path to the future.

Webber, a senior Geography major with a minor in Sustainability, saw the stories hidden within the lines of a map from a young age.

“When I was a kid, I’d look at these medieval maps and books, and I remember being struck by just how much information you could get about a place from a simple map — the physical distribution of cities, significant locations, countries, borders and more,” Webber said.

That interest eventually bloomed into action, and Webber set out to create maps of his own. Rather than charting the world around him, he began by making maps of fantasy worlds he and his friends would create.

“When I was working on these maps, I remember I would spend hours, sometimes the whole day, drawing them, mapping things out and determining how the people who lived there would interact with the environment,” Webber said. “When my friends were there, we’d set out like, eight pieces of paper together and make one, huge map between us.”

Above: one of the maps Webber created

However, from that initial coordinate, Webber’s path to a future career in cartography would take several twists and turns.

As time went on, he found himself with less time to devote to building fantastical worlds with friends. With the demands of school and work and the concerns of where his life would take him pressing in, he set cartography aside.

It wasn’t until a chance encounter many years later that his course would once again become clear.

After graduating high school, Webber looked toward attending college. He first attended the University of Colorado: Boulder but ended up having to put his education on pause and return home to Aurora, Colorado. In 2022, he enrolled at Aims Community College – and it was here that his childhood knack for map making would take on a new, scientific form.

“I was standing in the geography building looking at some of the posters for different classes that were up on the wall, when Mark Moody, the professor teaching one of the classes, walked up behind me and said, ‘if you’re interested, you should absolutely take it,’” Webber said. “That course was a Geographic Information Science (GIS) course. I went for it, and now I’m here today.”

Prior to that encounter, Webber had been uncertain as to what he wanted to major in. After taking his first GIS course, his doubts were dispelled.

“It was literally like fate,” Webber said.

After studying at Aims for around a year and a half, continuing to take a variety of courses relating to GIS, mapping and geography, he transferred to UNC through the Aims2UNC program to pursue a degree doing what he loved.

“There are so many ways you can think about mapping and so many ways to apply it. It makes me excited to be in the field I’m in,” Webber said. “We’ve had the Denver Police Department talk about crime mapping, visited facilities where they map for Google and Apple maps, worked with Northern Water on field mapping and more.”

Through both classes and hands-on field experience, Webber came to see map-making, charting and surveying in an entirely new light. Where once his maps had been purely for his and his friends’ entertainment, now he could use the charts and data he gathered to make a genuine impact on the real world.

Today, geographic information systems are used in countless ways and across a wide variety of industries — from filling out the maps of GPS systems to providing comprehensive data on localized crime statistics, travel data, wildlife conservation areas and much, much more.

But despite his longstanding enthusiasm for his chosen field of study, Webber has had to overcome several barriers both before and throughout his college career.

“I’m a first-time college student, so having to do it all on my own and figure out all the rules and requirements was a little overwhelming,” Webber said. “I don’t think I would have been able to go to college without [Aims and UNC]. At Aims, I could work full time while going to school and completely pay off my time there before I even left, and the student aid and scholarships UNC gave me have been amazing and I’m so grateful for them.”

Now, he’s putting his expertise to use helping his sister follow in his footsteps as she attends Aims and navigates her college journey.

“It’s cool to be able to help her and answer a lot of the questions she has about the process and be the person that I, myself, needed when I was going through that,” Webber said.

As he looks back on his own journey, drawing on his knowledge to help his sibling, Webber’s eyes are also focused on charting the path ahead.

After he graduates, he hopes to get a job working with the City of Greeley or the City of Evans doing work as a GIS technician. He said he’s been talking with a UNC graduate working in a similar position in Evans, remarking on how helpful it is to have connections with fellow Bears in his chosen career field before he has even graduated.

But the final destination on his career’s map would be to work out in the field, collecting data for the U.S. Geological Survey or the Bureau of Land Management.

“I really, really want to be out there, getting my hands dirty and going to exciting places,” Webber said. “That would be the coolest thing.”

Although the options ahead of him are varied and his course isn’t set in stone, Webber said he’s confident he’ll find his way.

That’s what maps are for, after all.