>>2537967get involved with ASPRS/CRSS and URISA. It (and school) is how I got into the mentorship, and that produced the EWB volunteer opportunity, as well as invaluable portfolio/interview advice, networking and an outside perspective. My cert program had a required capstone and they set me up with a community partner which was like a bonus internship (unpaid, natch) but something to put on my resume.
And honestly I'm not sure about Donairland but my community college has a very good geospatial program; if you can do it I would recommend it.. Diverse (in coursework). Got free ArcPro and Creative Cloud, and remote access to ENVI and Agisoft Metashape. I've taken courses in cartography, analysis, python, remote sensing, GPS (field maps/quickcapture/avenza), webmapping, and drone photogrammetry. Daily tutor access has helped a lot and sometimes I just leave the zoom tutor on in the background so I can live vicariously through other peoples problems. Dept head has a blog and posts internship opportunities daily, and our school has NSF grant to pump out a dozen GIS internships a year open only to us, which is helpful.
In short, go to CC, get certs first, then decide what you want to do before going for a BS
