My Undergraduate career started off as a party. Unfortunately, my extra-curricular activities affected my grades in a negative way. The reason was that I was not sure as to what I wanted to do. My first day in Introduction to Physical Geology changed all of that. I knew immediately that I was going to be a Geology Major. I started out as a mathematics minor, but decided to change to a minor Geography.
Growing up in Houston, there are no hills, and no mountains. There are no....rocks really at all, so, why geology? It all started on a trip to the Texas Hill Country when I was around five, or six, years old. I found a rock that looked interesting while hiking to the top of a hill. My dad found another rock and struck it against his pocket knife creating a spark, and a sound like a rifle. Ever since then, I have been collecting rocks. When I took my first geology course in college my fascination with rocks grew to include other aspects of earth processes. I found myself reading ahead in my text books, and ordering books on geology and reading them, only to find out the next semester that the book I ordered and read to satisfy my curiosity was the text book for my class that semester. I did that three separate times.
When I see a rock, or picturesque landscape, I want to know how they formed, and what it took to shape them. I want to know how the rock got to where it is now from where it formed. I want to know the history of that particular rock, or formation, or region. After i took Introduction to Physical Geology, I knew exactly where I belonged.
In pursuit of a minor in Geography with a concentration in Global Information Systems (GIS), I put together a project with the department chairs of Geology and Geography. This project was undertaken during a time when the Sul Ross State University campus was undergoing a massive construction project. Unfortunately, the only maps of utility lines were from the 1950s and 1960s. An updated, interactive, digital map of the utility lines under the school campus that was geographically accurate to within 12 inches would prove to be exceedingly beneficial to the school. This GIS project was a cumulative effort of my GIS education and skills, and earned me a Geography minor with a concentration in GIS applications.
The other project I completed, in pursuit of my Bachelor of Science in Geology, was Field Camp. For the uninitiated, field camp is six weeks in the bush; camping, hiking, and mapping the geology of the area. During field camp, all of the geological knowledge and theory I was taught was put to work. This is the project that brought all of my understanding together. It's one thing to be taught about faults, folds, and unconformities, it's another thing entirely to recognize them in the field, and gain an understanding of how the surrounding landscape formed, and why it looks today the way it does.
Growing up in Houston, there are no hills, and no mountains. There are no....rocks really at all, so, why geology? It all started on a trip to the Texas Hill Country when I was around five, or six, years old. I found a rock that looked interesting while hiking to the top of a hill. My dad found another rock and struck it against his pocket knife creating a spark, and a sound like a rifle. Ever since then, I have been collecting rocks. When I took my first geology course in college my fascination with rocks grew to include other aspects of earth processes. I found myself reading ahead in my text books, and ordering books on geology and reading them, only to find out the next semester that the book I ordered and read to satisfy my curiosity was the text book for my class that semester. I did that three separate times.
When I see a rock, or picturesque landscape, I want to know how they formed, and what it took to shape them. I want to know how the rock got to where it is now from where it formed. I want to know the history of that particular rock, or formation, or region. After i took Introduction to Physical Geology, I knew exactly where I belonged.
In pursuit of a minor in Geography with a concentration in Global Information Systems (GIS), I put together a project with the department chairs of Geology and Geography. This project was undertaken during a time when the Sul Ross State University campus was undergoing a massive construction project. Unfortunately, the only maps of utility lines were from the 1950s and 1960s. An updated, interactive, digital map of the utility lines under the school campus that was geographically accurate to within 12 inches would prove to be exceedingly beneficial to the school. This GIS project was a cumulative effort of my GIS education and skills, and earned me a Geography minor with a concentration in GIS applications.
The other project I completed, in pursuit of my Bachelor of Science in Geology, was Field Camp. For the uninitiated, field camp is six weeks in the bush; camping, hiking, and mapping the geology of the area. During field camp, all of the geological knowledge and theory I was taught was put to work. This is the project that brought all of my understanding together. It's one thing to be taught about faults, folds, and unconformities, it's another thing entirely to recognize them in the field, and gain an understanding of how the surrounding landscape formed, and why it looks today the way it does.
