2015 AIPG STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS
I was small that the earth was the greatest laboratory of them all. The earth stores its history in the rocks, it creates unique chemical combinations in stun- ning minerals, and it designs its self better than any architect ever could. How can I ignore the earth when everywhere I go it is just demanding for me to admire it.
When I came to the University of Nevada, Reno I planned to
study Mining Engineering with my sights set on big money. My first semesters would change this when I took a Geology 100 level course from the most charismatic professor I had ever seen, Dr. Carr. After just three classes from this Dr. Carr I knew I had to know more. I arranged a meeting to change my major and when we sat down to meet he told me of the wonders that awaited me if I wanted to pursue Geology. I had so many questions and I needed to answer these questions so I changed my major to Geology. During my junior year I read a few hydrogeology papers and enrolled in a hydrogeology class. This class was academically satisfying and ignited an additional passion, so I added hydrogeology to my major.
The most interesting people I have met are my fellow Geology majors and professors. I have talked to people out- side of the geosciences and they all hate their majors and are uncertain about their future in whatever major they are perus- ing. I can say with 100% certainty that the geoscience world is nothing like that. Every professor I have had are the envy of my non-geoscience friends: helpful, eccentric, and passion- ate for what they do. This passion for geosciences extends to my best friends all of which are Geology majors. I have taken time out of my day to help my friend Paige dePolo with her research at Berlin Ichthyosaur Park. Another friend, Nick Potter, introduced me to panning for gold and showed my first fleck of gold. These friends, and more, have a passion.
During my junior year I had the honor to go rock hounding with the professor that got me into Geology. I have always wanted my own garnets and he knew where to find them, in addition to other minerals. We started the day at his house and spent the day in the field 75 miles from the city. The rocks at the site were breathtaking. I was later informed it was a skarn deposit that was being mined for scheelite. Scheelite looks identical to quartz until put under black like where it fluoresces a stunning baby blue. The holes that the former miners had dug revealed the contact between a granodiorite and marble, they had mined out the skarn. I was able to touch the contact between the former hot and mighty granodiorite and the cold unmovable marble. After we left I could only think of one thing I needed to know more. When I got home I found the only research paper on the area was from the 1970’s and that mining had stopped in the early 1950’s. I was astonished and thought to do my own senior research project on this skarn deposit. It has been the. most frustrating thing I have ever done in my entire life. This frustration and unending questions on the area have made it that much interesting. If I can have just 1% of the fun I have when doing this research for the rest of my life I will have lived the greatest life I can imagine.
Nathaniel Foote, SA-6326
I was born with a curiosity about the natural world around me. I loved geology before I was old enough to know what it was called. Even when I was as young as two and three years old, my favorite thing to do was to pile sand up in a mountain in my sandbox, then run the hose down it to watch the transformation of
my mountain into something entirely different. As I got older I realized that my sandbox world was merely a model of the real world and I became fascinated with learning more about earth processes. Luckily, I had a family who recognized my obsession with understanding how the earth works, so every Christmas and birthday I was rewarded with stacks of science books and science kits from every relative. As I became familiar with the correct terms to identify what I had already observed in the sandbox, I found I only wanted to know more and more about alluvial streams, erosion, oxbow lakes and glacial val- leys. I never grew out of this stage of being fascinated with the earth as many children do. The lure of the internet was not as a source of games and social media for me, instead it was a bountiful source of information about how everything works on, under, and beyond our earth.
I find geology fascinating because it tells the story of our earth. When I really understood just how old the earth is, my own life began to feel somewhat insignificant. Time takes on a whole new meaning when thinking in terms of billions of years instead of decades. But rather than be depressed with the very small place that I have in this world, I feel a sense of joy and wonder at being alive at what seems to me like the best time of all. I have the huge advantage of accessing all the information and scientific knowledge the geologists that came before me have already figured out. Now, I feel it is my turn to add to this body of knowledge and I am eager to conduct my own research as I learn more about the earth and its pro- cesses for the rest of my life. My hope is that I can someday contribute my own answers to further unravel the mysteries of our earth for future young geologists to come.
My other hope is that I can use my chosen profession to be useful in this present time. For this reason, and also because I love the eloquence of mathematics, I am pursuing a dual major in both geology and geological engineering, along with dual minors in both math and hydrogeology. I believe that the interaction of math and physics with earth science will allow me to achieve many useful applications for human endeavors. Geology and geological engineering will complement each other and give me a strong background for doing much needed work. If I can help find safe building sites for construction projects, make roads safe and passable through rough country, and keep rivers and streams clean and healthy from mining run off, I will be happy. My home state of Washington has had two major landslides recently, the Oso slide which killed many people, and a large landslide near my own home on Whidbey Island. If I can help predict this kind of major destruction and help people avoid the devastation that it brings, I know I will be satisfied with my work.
My choice to become a geologist has been a very natural progression from my earliest years in the sandbox, to middle
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