Ben Palya

Background

About Ben Palya

I am in my second year as a MCRP student at the University of Iowa. My passion for planning comes from the desire to help communities reach their full potential by being both fiscally and environmentally sustainable. I first learned about the planning profession through a land use class I happened to take my sophomore year, and since then I have immersed myself with the profession through a mix of coursework and experience. My experience as a transportation planner at WSP exposed me to many different parts of Transportation Planning, including long-range, transit, Vision Zero and Grant Writing. This has made me want to pursue the transportation side of planning going forward. I have extensive GIS experience, and am comfortable using a variety of geospatial tools, conducting suitability analysis and importing and manipulating data when necessary. I also have experience with Office and am comfortable using Word, Powerpoint and Excel. My past involvement and experiences have made me a more complete person that will allow me to succeed in any position. Being a tour guide for the University of Iowa made me comfortable with public speaking, as well as talking to people from all backgrounds. My time with the Daily Iowan improved my technical writing skills, ability to listen and ask relevant questions and made me comfortable meeting hard and urgent deadlines. As an athlete my whole life, I am competitive and like to push myself in all parts of my life. Playing team sports helped me appreciate the process of building comradery and working with others for a common goal.