Participant Essays

Early Advising and Successful Transfer to Four-Year Degree Programs
Michael Cummings, Portland State University
The Department of Geology at Portland State University offers B.S./B.A. in Geology and B.S./B.A in Earth Science. The B.S./B.A. in Geology is the program for students intending to practice as professional geologists. The B.S./B.A. in Earth Science is a supporting degree for other professions such as law, K-12 teaching, urban and regional planning...

How do we prepare the next generation of geoscientists in this technology-driven world? We need to attract them in the first place.
Suki Smaglik, Heritage University
First of all, we need to have geoscience students in our classrooms in order to start to prepare them. Therefore, we need to start young. Kids love rocks; some collect rocks from the time they can crawl. The question we might ask is: Why does this interest stop rather than expand? Only a few of us who discovered our connection to Earth at a young age become geologists. We need to make it known that being a geoscientist is a good career. Geoscientists with an emphasis on environmental issues will always be employable, from field technicians to industry consultants. We have spent nearly two centuries despoiling North American resources. Problems related to resource extraction will take at least another century to set right. It is geoscientists who will be leading the way.

A "Jobs in Geosciences" Speaker Series: Addressing What Geologists Really Do
Lynsey LeMay, Virginia Peninsula Community College
The geology department at Thomas Nelson Community College (TNCC) recently initiated a program to bring geologists employed in a variety of fields to campus. Noted both anecdotally and through survey data collected about perceptions and careers in geosciences, students often have misconceptions about what geologists actually do in their various job functions. To address these misconceptions, the "jobs in geosciences" speaker series was started. This was funded by a small grant from the TNCC Educational Foundation.

VoiceThread for On-line Courses
Bob Ford, Frederick Community College
I wish I could write a concise, but elaborate statement describing all the wonderful things we are doing to prepare our students to be successful in geoscience degree programs and careers, but I cannot. We are a small to moderate sized school. Most of the students taking our science courses are non-science majors satisfying general education requirements or students trying to get into one of our allied health programs...

Engaging Students Through Research at a 2YC
Joshua Villalobos, El Paso Community College
I can honestly say that for the past six years of teaching full-time I have been excited about going to work every day. The prospect of having the opportunity to introduce something new to a group of students, or explain something that they take for "granite" everyday gives me as much excitement and contentment as my regular morning tall Starbuck House Blend coffee! I like to think that all college professors had that one instructor, professor, or advisor that made them want to go down the path of education and forgo the path of fame or fortune in the geosciences.

Strategies for raising awareness of geoscience related careers at 2-year colleges
Ben Wolfe, Kansas State University
I am single faculty discipline at my campus, part of a large urban multi-campus district in Kansas City, Missouri with a total of three district full-time geology faculty. The overwhelming majority of students at my institution take geoscience courses (e.g. physical geology or physical geography) to fulfill part of the general education requirements of the Associates in Arts degree or General Education certificate for transfer to a 4-year school...

Working Towards a Geoscience Degree
Erica Barrow, Ivy Tech Community College
Ivy Tech Community College, Indiana's only 2-year college, is still transitioning from a technical college to an all-encompassing fully accredited community college. Within the science department we have 4 full-time faculty members who cover the basic science disciplines (biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science) through introductory laboratory classes...

Hands-on Field Experience and Career Training in Oceanography
Allison Beauregard, Northwest Florida State College
One of the biggest challenges we face as community college instructors is preparing our students for careers; this is especially true in geoscience fields because people are generally not familiar with the discipline and they do not typically know anyone who is a geoscientist. Further, community colleges do not typically have research programs where students can gain exposure to geoscience research and/or field applications.

UT El Paso-El Paso Community College Activities
Diane Doser, The University of Texas at El Paso
For the past ~3 years the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) has been working with El Paso Community College (EPCC) to help ease the transition of geoscience and environmental science students between our institutions. We have initiated a number of activities to accomplish this including: articulation of degree programs, review of introductory course content, cross-institution research projects with EPCC students and co-sponsored student research symposiums...

Working Toward a Statewide Transfer Agreement for Geology in Colorado
Eleanor Camann, Red Rocks Community College
Preparing students for transfer to bachelor's degree programs in geology and related disciplines is one of my primary goals as discipline lead and the only full-time geology faculty member at Red Rocks Community College (RRCC). To that end, I have become heavily involved in curriculum development and revision at the state level in order to strengthen our courses, and have worked with faculty from other institutions to determine course requirements for an AS in Geology degree. I will focus on the latter efforts for this essay.