Student Profile: Diego Phoyu Solares
Major: Geographic Information Science and City and Regional Planning
Year: 2nd Year
Hometown: Montevideo, Uruguay
Diego Phoyu Solares came to Ohio State from Dallas, Texas, where he was living before college. He was drawn to OSU because of “the large and wonderful environment of Columbus, the beautiful campus buildings, the community, and the small departments that are here to help you succeed.” He originally came to OSU to study city and regional planning in the Knowlton School of Architecture, but discovered geography and knew that he also wanted to spend time in this department as well. “The cool thing about geography is that it’s a small department, so you get personal attention and small classes, but you’re also at this big institution that gives you access to so many other disciplines,” he said. “That’s been such a big advantage of this department in this school.”
Diego says that being in a larger city like Columbus has made a big impact on his studies in planning and geography. “I’ve always been a kid of the urban, so I’ve always wanted to be in a large environment with a lot of things happening, a lot of things to do and places to explore. I had the opportunity to tour the city of Columbus when I visited OSU, and I really felt like this was a city that I wanted to live in for the next four years. I guess also, the community was very welcoming, which wasn’t always the case with other schools, where it wasn’t as personal.”
When discussing his degree, he talked about the importance of having marketable skills, particularly with the work he is doing in GIS. “I have a lot of examples of data visualizations I’ve done that I can show to employers.” He also says that the connections he has made with peers and faculty have been crucial. He hopes to go into GIS work in the public sector, helping communities understand new mobility options as we look into the future of urban spaces.
He encourages future students to not be afraid to explore new things. “In this department, we are able to explore data sets we are interested in and connect them to the reading we are doing. A lot of the work we do isn’t dictated to us but are topics that we choose based on our interests and the directions we hope to pursue in the future.”
If he could go anywhere in the world, he said he really admired Madrid. “With what they’ve done over the past forty or fifty years, its really inspired me and I would love to end up there at some point.”
Find out more about the GIS major or the City and Regional Planning major in the Knowlton School.