STUDENT TO PROFESSIONAL
8. H.M. Cekirge, W.J. Lehr, Engineering Analysis 4(4), 186 (1987) 9. C.J. Alves, A.L. Silvestre, Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements (2018, In Press) 10. C.S. Chen, A. Karageorghis, Y. Lin, Numerical Algorithms 72 (2015)
Student to Professional Geoscientist Metamorphosis
Victoria R. Stinson, SA-3271 Brandon University in Petrology and Mineral Deposits
Victoria is defending her dissertation at the University of Saskatchewan this winter on gold mineralization at the Borden Mine in Ontario, Canada and its role in reconstructing global tectonics and mineralization in the Neoarchean. She has recently accepted a Sessional Lecturer position at Brandon University in Petrology and Mineral Deposits.
After returning home after my first experience as a new, professional geoscientist I wrote this short essay for all my Millennial peers who are working diligently to improve our science. This essay is also dedicated to other generations, particularly Baby Boomers, who have been educating and mentoring us through these early stages of our student and professional careers.
When does the transition into becoming
a professional begin? When you address your colleagues with respect or treat every technician as you would like to be treated? Perhaps when you are conducting fieldwork safely and respecting the bound- aries of others? Or how about address- ing Indigenous rights in the bayous of Louisiana or the fens of Minnesota? When do we complete the metamorphosis into a
professional?
Today! Every day you conduct scientific studies in a lab or compute data or complete your geophysics assignment you are a professional geoscientist and must act like one. If you are using inclusive language in your student chapter meetings and educating young scientists about paleontology you are improving the geoscience community and are already acting as a professional.
Today marks the end of my first project as a consulting geoscientist- not a student geoscientist but a full geoscientist. During this project I was asked to assist in tasks I have previ- ously conducted as a student geologist including sample col- lecting, core logging, and identifying minerals for a project to evaluate lithium occurring in spodumene-bearing pegmatites. I became very confident during graduate school at providing structural analyses of the high-grade ore zones and the barren waste rock to identify the structural control of the ore. A task that was new to me was working with a fellow new geoscientist who was not sufficiently professional. Their unprofessionalism included raising their voice at other geoscientists when they didn’t feel like they were getting their way, drinking alcohol
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and smoking mari- juana in the core shack while work- ing, and arriving to work late every day. Their excel- lent geoscience work did not erase how they acted, nor does it position new, young geosci- entists in a positive light.
As new geoscien- tists, particularly
Millennials, we will be scrutinized more than other workers and we need to prove our value to ourselves, the companies we represent, and our scientific community. Our generation is already thought by today’s media to be lacking in work ethic and drive and we need to show that we are willing to put in the work necessary for success. If we are to be trusted in the future to issue water quality policies or develop warn- ing systems for natural disasters, we need to concentrate on becoming professionals as early in our careers as possible. The metamorphosis to professional might not be easy but we can help ourselves, mentor our colleagues, and support those who may need it. As we join the ranks of professional geosci- entists, alongside the likes of Zelma Maine Jackson, Harrison Schmitt, and Kathryn D. Sullivan, we will change our profes- sional environment for the better in our evolving field through contributions like #MeTooMining (Grant and Calleja, 2018), education, improving public policies, and collaborating with computer science to improve geosciences: but all of that will only be useful if we also act as professionals.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to all the helpful mentors in the geosciences for their patience and willingness to help our new generation, especially when it’s difficult.
References:
Grant, T. and Calleja, D. (May 23, 2018) “Us too: Eight women share their stories of sexism, harassment and assault at work”, The Globe and Mail.
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