UNDERGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS AIPG National is proud to announce that we have awarded 16 $1,000 scholarships to students pursu-
ing geology degrees and careers. Scholarships are funded by national, the Foundation of the AIPG, and select sections. As part of their scholarship application, we asked undergraduate students to write an essay themed “Why I want to be a Geologist.” We are sharing their essays here.
We also awarded two William Siok graduate scholarships funded by the Foundation of the AIPG
to students pursuing their graduate level degrees. One graduate student was awarded the Colorado Section’s Rex Monahan Geological Scholarship. We asked graduate students to write an essay themed “The Major Field of Geoscience Employment in 2030.” We are sharing those in this edition as well.
We are so proud of our student members and excited to see what they will bring to the future of the geosciences.
Congratulations students! As a geology major in college, I’m constantly learning more
and more about the rocks and fossils that I have collected over the years. The rocks that I first fell in love with because of their beautiful colors and intriguing shapes are now the very same rocks that I love because of their fascinating structures and detailed stories of their origins and past. The fossils preserved in these rocks tell me what kinds of life forms existed in the past and how they lived and died ages ago. Piecing together this history is one of my passions in life; understanding the distant past is not only captivating, but it helps me to under- stand the inner workings of our planet.
With every geology class that I have the opportunity to take,
I obtain a better understanding of the details preserved in each and every one of the rocks. A rock that appears to have swirls in it now tells me about the folding it underwent; a rock with inclusions of another mineral tells me about its history as it cooled. A fossil of a brachiopod tells me what this part of southwestern Ohio used to be like and what used to live here. Each rock carries eons of information stored within it. As a geologist, I will have the ability to unlock that information and translate it for the benefit of humankind.
Elyse Dilloway, SA-9891 San Diego State University, CA – CA Section – Foundation AIPG funded San Diego is known, among other
things, for its picturesque beaches. One could never imagine that the sweeping sand dunes are trucked in from industrial
quarries. If the city of San Diego didn’t spend the effort on keeping its beaches picture perfect, such beaches would not exist. It has been many years since the San Diego river car- ried enough sediments downstream to naturally replenish the beaches, so the city has fine-grained sand trucked in to make sure there’s a beach to go back to. This is the beauty of geology and earth science: it’s like getting a behind the scenes look at seemingly unremarkable phenomena. I want to be a geologist because I love being able to see the how and why of earth’s processes, learning the about the forces behind natural phenomena, and because I want one day to be able to spread my enthusiasm for earth science to everyone.
I didn’t get a taste of earth science until my senior year of
high school, in environmental science class. I’d known about rocks, and that there was a rock cycle, but that was the extent
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of my knowledge. My interest was piqued by the chapter on paleoclimate sciences. It blew my 16-year-old mind to learn that scientists could determine the details of ancient climates from oxygen isotopes in ice and deep ocean cores. That was it. I decided I wanted to make paleosciences my life’s pas- sion. I’d never taken a formal earth science course before, but I knew that I would love it once I dipped my toes in. I still can’t describe the excitement I feel when I go on road trips or even just around San Diego county and I can think to myself, I know how that mountain got there. I know why that river
flows through this valley. I know what kind of rock this is. Understanding the history of the landscape makes it all the more beautiful.
I chose paleontology as my major not because of Jurassic
Park (although that has inspired me a little) but because of what it can tell scientists about the future. Everyone knows there is a phenomenon called climate change, but the heated debate people get into is whether or not humans are accelerat- ing it, and whether or not they should do something about it. Paleoclimatic evidence tells scientists that yes, humans are accelerating the global warming rate. Whether or not humans should try to stall this rate or reverse it is an entirely differ- ent moral debate (but we probably should, if we don’t want to all go to Mars). Not only can scientists perform comparative studies of today’s climate with that of thousands of years ago, but it is possible to construct very accurate climate models from millions of years ago. A combination of historical geology, geochemistry, and paleontology turns fragments of evidence into whole pictures of ancient environments. Some people may think the earth’s history is mysterious and elusive, but
Jul.Aug.Sep 2019 • TPG 19
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