Previous Scholarship Winner Spotlight: Nathan Koster
Did you know that our WLIA scholarship program started in 2005?
Meet one of the two initial recipients, Nathan Koster!
Let's go back to 2005 and the first ever WLIA scholarship. Where were you attending school and what were you studying? Did you attend the WLIA conference that year?
I was attending UW-La Crosse as an undergraduate studying Geography and Biology, with a specialization in GIS. The Geography Department was very supportive and connected students to resources such as internships, career development, and scholarship opportunities.
My first WLIA conference was in 2006, after I became more aware of the organization’s purpose, mission, and vision. At that conference I was able to network with peers and professionals, which led to an internship opportunity with the Wisconsin Department of Administration focusing on their Land Information Program.
Where are you originally from and what brought you to study what you did in college?
I was born and raised in Wisconsin, where I grew up in on a small farm near the Fox Cities. La Crosse had a very strong academic reputation that also provided me the ability to continue my athletic career and compete at the NCAA level in both cross country and track. My academic focus changed a few times until I decided to focus my energy and passion in Geography, Biology, and GIS. I have always gravitated towards maps, exploring, and the outdoors. Some of my earliest memories were of car rides and looking through maps to understand where we were going. When I realized that there were a wide range of career paths, it felt exciting to know that this could be a steppingstone to bigger and brighter things in my future.
Where did you go after college?
As I neared completion of my undergraduate education I knew that I wanted to pursue additional education to advance my immediate career prospects. Having been able to experience multiple career paths in my internships, this provided me with the insight necessary to know that I would need a Master’s degree to attain employment in a field that would feel rewarding to me. I accepted a full scholarship to attend Florida State University for my Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning, which turned out to be one of the best decisions I made in my career.
What's the best advice that someone has ever given you?
It’s not that you fail, it’s how you respond and learn from your mistakes. No one is perfect and often you need to learn from those mistakes to grow meaningfully.
What do you do for fun?
I currently reside in Minneapolis, MN where I work as a Transportation Planning Manager for Minneapolis Public Works. Looking back at my career aspirations from undergrad and grad school, I consider this to be a dream job where I’m leading the visionary planning and design of streets for one of the best urban transportation systems in North America. In my free time I still love to run competitively, bike everywhere in Minneapolis, go on hiking trips, and continue on my journey to visiting every US National Park (currently at 40+).
I had to look up how many national parks there are in the US. 63 apparently! So you are nearing the home stretch. I know that it's about impossible to decide, but do you have a favorite thus far?
This is the most frequent question during and after we take each trip. The fun part is that it has a different answer each time. All of the parks have been amazing, except for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, you all can skip this one. We have amazing memories from all of the parks and now we’re excited to create new memories and see how our two young daughters experience each of these parks their first times. With that said, Bryce Canyon’s Fairyland Loop at sunrise is hard to beat.
