Champion to Difference Maker

When Amy Work first showed up at Ohio Wesleyan University in 2000, she was simply looking for somewhere to play soccer and study. What she found was a school that “felt like home,” a major that sparked a lifelong passion, and a team that would be remembered in the history books.

Work spoke to the Comm 110 class about her bachelor’s degree in Geography, Urban Studies, and Environmental Studies while playing soccer for the Battling Bishops. She helped lead OWU to back-to-back NCAA National Championships in 2001 and 2002. She even earned First Team All-American honors along the way. Trying to balance being a student athlete came with difficulties, and as she said, came down to “time management, trust, and belief.” 

Her academic journey wasn’t always straight forward however. “I struggled in physics,” she stated, “but I loved my geography class.” A deeper dive into the course catalog introduced her to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) - a discovery that would shape her entire career. 

Post graduation, Work earned her M.A. in Geography from Syracuse University, where she would serve as a teaching assistant for GIS and Remote Sensing. She later worked as a GIS Analyst and Education Coordinator at the institute for the Application of Geospatial Technology in New York. 

In 2012, Work moved to Bahía Ballena, Costa Rica, where she founded a nonprofit organization named Geoporter. This nonprofit is dedicated to teaching community members how to use geospatial tools to map humpback whale sightings, street pollution, reforestation projects, and more. 

“The idea was to empower community members to do the work on their own,” she said. Her mapping efforts aided in a drive for cleaner water reforms and even prompted a government policy change within a month. 

Living in Bahía Ballena gave her a front-row seat to the region’s natural beauty. This included the famous whale’s tail formation, but also the challenges facing the coastal communities. She worked with schools, volunteers, and even other OWU alumni to construct local capacity in environmental monitoring and data collection. 

Work would end up returning to the United States in 2017 and now serves as a GIS and Map Librarian at the University of California San Diego. This allows her to continue her commitment to education and community engagement. 

When asked what advice she would give to graduating seniors, Work didn’t hesitate: “Take chances and you can always come back to something else you wanna do. Make a difference for the world.”