UNDERGRADUATE ESSAYS


Heriberto Patino Luna, SA-12188


UW-Whitewater Wisconsin Section


My interest in becoming a


Professional Geologist comes from the fascinating Geology of my hometown, La Luz, Guanajuato, Mexico. Everything from how flooded roads were dealt with during the rainy season to admiring the hills and mountains intrigued me. However, my life was steered in a different direction in my senior year of high school when it came time to decide what career I wanted to pursue. I soon learned that attending college was costly and became discouraged, so I entered the trades as a welder. I enjoyed seeing my skills improve, but I knew this was not my passion, so I began looking for afford- able colleges to attend. The money I had saved from jobs in high school and financial assistance from the school and my parents allowed me to chase my dreams.


When I arrived at UW-Whitewater, I had an idea of what I


wanted to pursue based on my existing interests. With this in mind, I contacted a professor expressing my interest in joining her lab after hearing about her research project about slope failure monitoring during my orientation week as an incoming student. I began by doing background research on slope failure. Then, I transitioned to conducting experiments, analyzing data, writing reports, and presenting our findings. This research experience made it clear that I want to pursue a career focused on monitor- ing and mitigating natural hazards.


I must be well qualified to fulfill my dream of contribut- ing knowledge to monitoring and mitigating natural hazards. Becoming a professional geologist will allow me to achieve my objective. With this title, my future employer will know that I am qualified to give advice that would involve the stakeholder's well- being. Overall, this is something that I am motivated to achieve because it will challenge my abilities. Then, when I receive my license, I will be fulfilled by knowing my work will contribute to potentially saving people's lives and property.


protect alpine vegetation. In all this rock work, I have become the crew’s official rock and mineral detective.


“Hm, looks like a feldspar rich matrix with prominent garnet


crystals,” I say, knowing he is most interested in learning the name of the beautiful red gems.


“Whoa, garnet? Is that rare?”


“Not particularly, but they are stunning. That one has a par- ticularly nice habit,” I say, pointing out the dodecahedral faces, “you should keep it.”


My friend puts the rock in his pocket, grinning. By the end of the summer, the whole crew can identify garnet, and most of them are acquainted with the different types of feldspar.


I study geology because I love answering these questions,


and I love being the person who knows such intricacies about the planet we live on. So often we walk through natural spaces and only see the most basic categories of rock, plant, tree, and animal. I hope to someday learn more about specific plant and tree species, but for now, I am content to look out in the woods and be able to discern between schist and granite, feldspar and quartz, and tourmaline and biotite.


Humans’ relationship with the Earth is in a precarious place.


Most of us live lives that are detached from the Earth and based on extraction of its resources. We understand that our present way of life is not sustainable, but most of us lack the agency or understanding of how to change it. Some of us still do not under- stand why our way of life must be changed, seeing the Earth as inanimate, the plants as expendable, and the other animals as mere pests. But to name something is to know something, and to know something is to care about something. We feel very differently towards a fox or our dog named Charlotte than a rock outcrop framing the highway or the “weeds” we trample over in the forest. I believe that cultivating a sense of knowing the Earth will encourage protection of it and steer present and future generations onto a more sustainable path.


While I am interested in a career in field geology, possibly Julia Rudlaff, SA-11675


Michigan State University


Michigan Section


Teach the children. Show them daisies and the pale hepatica. Teach them the taste of sassafras and winter- green…Give them the fields and the woods


and the possibility of the world salvaged from the lords of profit…. Attention is the beginning of devotion. - Mary Oliver, “Upstream”


“Julia, what’s this?” my friend and crewmate asks, holding up a shimmering white rock with deep red crystals protruding from it.


We are working on the slope of Mt. Adams in New Hampshire, and our job revolves around the use of rocks – we use boulders for step-stones, we break down rocks into gravel, and we use dry-stone masonry to construct scree walls on the mountain that


28 TPG • Jul.Aug.Sep 2024 Instagram Facebook LinkedIn YouTube www.aipg.org


working for the USGS, the Forest Service, or the National Parks Service, I am equally invested in geoscience outreach and education, in the form of working with students and creating interpretative guides or educational materials. My background in fieldwork from three seasons of backcountry trail crews and my communication experience from my creative writing minor make me well-equipped to step into both of those roles in my professional career. I am also keen on writing, in both a profes- sional and creative (hopefully intertwined) capacity. My English education has been just as important to me as my geologic, and a non-trivial part of my interest in geology grows from the artistic way in which understanding geology reframes one’s perceptions of the world. Wherever my future career in the geosciences is, I hope to be working outside, writing, and teaching with geologic knowledge and philosophy at the forefront of my work.


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