Salvatore-John Ragusa’s first semester at Monroe Community College (MCC) included a history course, which he thought would apply toward his intended major—and a geographic information systems (GIS) course to fulfill a general education requirement. He was so impressed by the GIS lessons taught by Geography Professor Jonathon “Jon” Little that he changed his major from history to geography.

Salvatore-John Ragusa directs customers at an event that L3Harris Global Communications, Inc. held in Europe.

“Geography is at the crossroads of the humanities and of STEM,” Ragusa said. The GIS certificate he earned and the international internship he did remotely as part of this specialization of his associate degree in geography gave him lots of authentic experiences with GIS software and interpreting data. “That gives you the tools to display a humanities topic,” Ragusa said, explaining that as a student he focused on researching food deserts in Rust Belt cities.

Now as a Central Sales Senior Associate (Sales Support) with L3Harris Global Communications, Inc. he uses those tools to communicate with colleagues and customers in Western and Southern Europe.

“I think Jon’s program really helps students ... it’s something that genuinely helps students and builds them up,” Ragusa said.

Jon’s program is the Geospatial Information Science and Technology (GIST) Associate of Applied Science Degree at the State University of New York (SUNY) Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York.

Prior to Jon Little receiving Mentor-Connect mentoring to develop his first Advanced Technological Education grant proposal in 2015, the college had two GIS courses. And Little had a dream of building a program.

The GIST degree program with stackable credentials is now MCC’s fastest growing program. On October 1 Little will begin leading his third ATE project—Advancing Geospatial Workforce Preparation (Award 2453993). With the $679,505 grant he plans to add artificial intelligence, more cloud-based skills, and paid student internships to the program he built with his first two ATE grants.

Little’s first ATE project was the GeoTech Consortium of Western New York (Award 1501076), which developed a 24 credit GIST Certificate. The $199,838 grant also funded professional development programs for 20 teachers to add GIST activities at eight high schools.

His second ATE grant for the Meeting Workforce Needs for Skilled Geospatial Technicians through Virtual Geospatial Information Science Technology (GIST) Education project (Award 1955256) built Monroe’s AAS degree in geospatial information technology. The degree program was structured to give students the option to complete all their courses online or in person at the Rochester Campus. The project team also created a GIST micro-credential for incumbent technicians to enhance their GIST skills and knowledge.

In addition to this $468,536 grant, Little has received a total of $209,199 in three supplemental awards from NSF to fund student research initiatives with University of Maine professors and to develop a partnership with two German Applied Universities of Sciences. (MCC was recently notified that SUNY had allocated $180,000 for the college to enhance its GIS lab equipment.)

Little Encourages Two-Year College Faculty to Use Mentor-Connect Resources 

In 2015 Little received Mentor-Connect cohort mentoring for faculty that are new to ATE from Vince DiNoto, principal investigator of the GeoTech Center for his first grant proposals. Osa Brand, Mentor-Connect senior personnel, guided his two subsequent project proposals through Mentor-Connect’s Moving Up Mentoring service.

Geography Professor Jonathon Little and the team at Monroe Community College are embarking on a third ATE grant this fall. 

“I can't say enough about Vince and Osa. They are amazing—super supportive. Not only supportive, but they're also really knowledgeable about the grant-writing process. I learned so much about how to write a project [proposal] ... Without that, again, I would not have been successful,” he said. 

Little pointed out that GIST program is a team effort with his MCC colleagues, especially Wayne Howard, co-principal investigator and adjunct instructor, co-PI Heather Pierce, co-principal investigator and associate professor of geography, and Michael Boester, geography professor.

And, he said, the GIST team has benefited from the strong support of MCC leaders and staff at all levels of the college.

His advice to aspiring ATE principal investigators and current grantees who want to attempt larger ATE projects is “Get involved with Mentor-Connect.”

Mentor-Connect has a webinar at 3 p.m. (EST) on September 24 that explains its cohort mentoring for two-year college faculty who have not previously had ATE grants. The 90-minute session with NSF program directors and Mentor-Connect Principal Investigator Pam Silvers is free, but registration is required. Mentor-Connect’s application for cohort mentoring in 2026 is due Friday, November 7.

MCC Alumnus Shares How ATE Grants Benefit Students 

Ragusa said those grants and Little’s connections from his time as a Fulbright specialist means that MCC’s GIST students have the advantage of a high-quality program with unusual practical experiences that help people beyond the campus.

The virtual internship project Ragusa did as part of his GIS certificate capstone course involved analyzing satellite data to check winter wheat fields in Kazakhstan for Septoria and leaf rust. He presented his findings about these two diseases in the crops via Zoom to officials at Kazakh Agrotechnical University to help them understand which fields were infected and inform their decisions about how to address the problem.

As the president of the MCC Mapping Club he led other students in periodic mapping projects to assist first responders in areas where natural disasters had occurred. Helping people was highly motivating to him and other students in the club, he said.

Ragusa said that in addition to these rich experiences attending MCC saved him time and money because SUNY University at Buffalo accepted all of his geography credits toward the bachelor of science degree in GIS that he completed there in 2022. He also earned a bachelor of arts degree in international trade. Ragusa was awarded associate degrees in those two disciplines in 2022.

The combination of skills helped him get a job with an international company and to have just an eight- minute commute to his office in Rochester.

According to MCC’s GIST brochure other program alumni have also landed good jobs. These include district manager for Eagleview; software engineer for L3Harris; GIS change manger for Locana; python developer for Esri; and GIS staffers for New York towns.

The other reason that Ragusa said he advocates for Monroe’s GIST program and has served as a tutor for GIS students, is that Little is “a caring professor. When your professor cares about you, that matters a ton,” he said, adding that all the professors he had at the community college care about their students.

“At MCC, they actually genuinely do care about the students. There is a personal touch,” Ragusa said.