Under the
Graduation Lights: Joining the Ranks of Professionals
Isaac E. Pope, SA-9950 Graduations are around the corner. It is around this time of year
that a wave of excitement begins to slowly build up to the big day. Of course, there is still another semester of cram studying, exams, and haggling with classmates over those infamous group projects. Yet, you begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. A prize not yet in hand but fully in sight.
These are the months of reflection. You may not fully realize it
now, but you have truly come a long way from where you started. Regardless of whether you always knew geology was for you or if you discovered it later in the journey, you have passed some significant hurdles to join the ranks of a privileged few who dedicate their lives to the study of our Earth. It is a life of continual learning, and as such perhaps you feel daunted at how much remains to learn. I can assure you: the distance you have already come has prepared you like few others ever will to tackle the breadth of engineering, applied, or fundamental questions awaiting you.
It is also at this time you are preparing to embark on a new
chapter of your story. Even if you head to graduate school, you are no longer simply a “student.” You are joining the professional com- munity, a pantheon of individuals trained and qualified to address a variety of challenges in the world beyond the textbook. With this rank of professional, you are about to enjoy several privileges and responsibilities. Perhaps the most surprising to me was the transformation from understudy to peer. No longer are you simply an apprentice; now you are qualified to stand upon your own two feet. You will still have supervisors and mentors to answer to, but to many more you will be seen as a professional capable of solving questions independently. Be mindful of what you say – you might be surprised how much more weight a stray comment or criticism now carries!
With your newly minted graduation, you will also act as a repre-
sentative to broader society of our professional community. Unless you actively engage in community outreach, you may be surprised at how little most of our society understands seemingly intuitive
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issues in Earth Science. Most people will only ever become familiar with the dangerously little they learn in primary school, and only a few of those will take entry level classes in college. Instead, most perceptions are built around what they see in the news or social media. In case you have not had the time to keep up with either during your studies, allow me to catch you up: most of the content out there is not positive. As is widely known, news media priori- tizes startling or upsetting stories that sell, and it is these stories, such as the latest oil spill or high-casualty natural disaster, that will frame most individual’s ideas on Earth Science. As a geoscience professional, you have the opportunity to represent and offer new perspectives into these broader issues.
Not long ago, I myself was told (loosely paraphrased) “you always hear about people in said scientific field, but you rarely ever know one for yourself.” Chances are, as a new professional, you may be the sole representative for the geoscience and geoengineering professional community for many people in your life. Be prepared to hear some of the toughest questions facing our society, be grounded in the latest information available, and be willing to share so that more will learn to value the contribution of geoscientists and geoengineers.
Finally, as you approach graduation, it is not too soon to embark on this journey. For myself, I sported the AIPG stole at graduation. Not only will you stand out from the crowd for being one of the few who will wear a geoscience-themed graduation stole, you will also be one of the few to truly adopt a forward-looking mindset. You will find that most people enjoy only part of the true excitement of graduation. Many treat it as a time to “rest on one's laurels,” and celebrate their past endeavors. However, for the geoscience profes- sional, you are doing far more than simply graduating. You don the honor of joining the ranks of professionals. With the AIPG stole, you carry the promise of us all, the promise to speak and do with “competence, integrity, and ethics.” You certainly have come a long way toward competence. Congratulations, soon to be graduates!
www.aipg.orgwww ai g org www.a
pg.org
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