2015 AIPG STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS
ily be discredited and dismissed by the individual. Accordingly, I spent years ignoring the early memories of poring over rocks in my backyard in search of crystals and natural patterns, sure that this cultural platitude did not apply to me. Until finally, last year, I had an epiphany. Perhaps I am not so unique as to deny what “they say,” and by deny- ing an adherence to a cliché I was in fact denying my own calling. I
realized that I want to become a geologist and that I always have. Having admitted this fact, my geological aspirations can be broadly broken down into two categories of desire: the selfish and the selfless.
Selfishly speaking, I am lured by the workplace environ- ment, the nature of the science itself, and the connection to something bigger than myself. To begin, having spent enough time in an office building to figure out that is not what I want to do, the allure of a career spent working outdoors while explor- ing geological phenomena is endlessly enrapturing. Secondly, the study of geology itself piques my mind in a way few other subjects have. As I see it, it marries the right brain to the left, combining the logical concepts of science and mathematics to the creative perceptions necessary for interpretation. I am captivated by the idea that each rock, bed, and formation has a story which we, as detectives, can piece together. Lastly, I am drawn to geology by a notion that goes beyond the tangible realm. Studying the visible processes of our tiny planet feels like a connection to the universe, to something far greater than myself. A sensation too complex for words, it can best be compared to the feeling one gets when standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon.
Selflessly speaking, I am greatly concerned about the future of our planetary home. By becoming a geologist I hope to assist in guiding the path we take in the treatment of our Earth, both in establishing policies and in influencing perspectives. I want to participate in the problem solving necessary to achieve sustainable development of our current home while also exploring other options. I aim to be a steward of the planet who can read the language of the Earth and translate it into knowledge and understanding for the humans who inhabit it. In short, I want to share my passion as a student of the natural sciences, and use it to truly make a difference.
I am at the forefront of my career as a geologist and thus my current motivations undoubtedly sound idealistic, still untainted by the realities of the field that I have just entered. But it is these grandiose ideals that keep me excited and motivated, even now while completing challenging academic courses. My aspirations, both selfish and selfless, combine to produce an enthusiasm for geology that cannot be contained, reminding me of the initial intrigue I found amongst the backyard stones all those years ago.
Christopher Kremer, SA-6173
I have exactly three recollections of rocks from my child- hood. 1) There was a boulder at the end of my suburban Connecticut street that my friends and I liked to climb. 2) My favorite rock from a school museum trip was a giant nickel-iron meteorite. 3) On the car ride to grade school every morning, my dad would point to a smoothed rock outcrop in the midst
of a housing development and say, “Chris, a glacier made that.”
As I passed from childhood to early adulthood, I rarely thought about the first two rock memories, but that glacially carved outcrop always bothered me. A mile of ice smothering the picturesque New England landscape? Unconscionable. I accepted the fact quietly, but my high school mind, then primarily interested in debate and good
books, could not comprehend all that ice grinding against all those rocks now covered by all those tracts of quaint condo- miniums. Road cuts through garnet schist weren’t intimate glimpses of a past geologic era but were rather a component of the built environment, like high rises and strip malls. As far as I was concerned, geology was the stuff of National Geographic spreads and natural disaster films, not of sound scientific study or professional pursuit. Clearly, I needed more rock in my life.
I first took up geology in college—straying from my nice, neat path to law school—because rocks made me restless. When I took my first physical geology course, I kept thinking about that outcrop and those glaciers crushing New England. After seeing enough glaciology diagrams, I eventually came to terms with my childhood dilemma, but new, more unsettling questions arose. Why exactly do tectonic plates move? Why does the Earth’s magnetic field change polarity? How do you tell chalcopyrite from pyrite? Most gratifying was the realiza- tion that I could find answers to my questions not only in the authority of professors and the scientific literature, but also in my own research endeavors.
A discipline that once seemed so remote, nowadays com- pletely chills when I sit up and think at night. The subject of my undergraduate honors thesis research is so recent (latest Neogene), that it almost feels like it happened a few years before I was born. While doing fieldwork three summers ago in Iceland, the ubiquitous glaciers hardly fazed me. I bagged samples for my thesis work and sketched maps and cross sec- tions. A few Ma here, a few Ma there. Yet, whenever I peer at thin sections or plot my analytical results, my whole body begins to tingle. These rocks are older than the oldest buildings I have ever seen; they are at least two orders of magnitude older than the dawn of civilization. They formed before humans, and completely without the consent of humans. Sometimes, I talk about my Iceland rocks or my chalcopyrite, thinking that the rocks are at my mercy. But really, I am the one at the mercy of the rocks.
Taylor Krabiel, SA-4858
If I had a time machine and went back to tell my high school self that he would fall in love with rocks and want to do nothing more than pursue a life time studying rocks he would’ve told me, “Taylor, you are crazy!” I guess my high school self would be right I am crazy, but I am crazy in love with Geology and this bring me joy. I can’t see myself doing anything outside of the geoscience life. I have always wanted to be a scientist, but never in my wildest dream did I think that the science I would study was found everywhere and only a small chunk can ever be brought into a lab. How could I have known when
www.aipg.org
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56