Kristin Sakaguchi

I first learned about Syracuse Community Geography through the Geography department during my senior year, and was interested in the internship because it offered opportunities to work with the community. For over a year, I worked on a variety of projects including the Alcohol Outlet Density study in Madison County, planning and facilitating a 4-day Census training workshop, and updating numerous Mapsonline files. Through this work, I not only learned a lot about the communities in and around Syracuse, but I exponentially increased my skills and knowledge in GIS mapping and applications, research in demographic data, and using data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

I am currently a Research Analyst at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles, a legal and civil rights community organization. I work with the Demographic Research Team to publish demographic profiles on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders at various geographic levels in the United States. I recently completed a report on Los Angeles County, which was released at a launch and attended by over 200 community members and policy makers. The research skills, experience managing diverse data, attention to detail, and general job experience that SCG gave me has significantly helped me to be successful at my job.