What students, faculty, and recent graduates say about Geology at Principia.

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The many dimensions of Geology

"Am I living near a major fault? Am I going to have to deal with earthquakes? Am I on a flood plain? Am I going to have to deal with floods? I find myself thinking about that more than you might think," says a recent graduate who minored in Geology. "It's an interesting perspective." A recent graduate says, "I just loved the topic ever since I was little. My family would be driving somewhere and my mom would quiz me about what we saw in the land about the shape of a valley or the shape of a mountain and what caused it." A professor adds, "I like the idea that people are becoming more acquainted with the geologic environment in which they live."

A hands-on program of study

"I've always been interested in sciences, biology especially. But after I got to Prin I took a few geology classes, since I really enjoyed studying about the earth and how it moves and breathes. We have an area around the campus here that's great for geology — the bluffs and field trips to study rock formations in Missouri. You really have a hands-on experience," says another junior geology minor, who is also majoring in mass communication with a studio art minor. "I've really enjoyed the courses with hands-on work," says a geology minor with majors in math and education. "The geology minor will probably appeal to someone who enjoys experiencing the concepts we learn about instead of just reading from a textbook." A recent graduate adds her perspective, saying, "It was a good blend of lab and standard classroom work. The field trips were great. Even when I was a teaching assistant on the field trips, I never stopped learning."

Geology complements any major

"The Geology minor is a good accompaniment to other majors, especially environmental science," says a professor. "There's a lot of interest, for instance, in prospecting for water supplies or in engineering geology — understanding earthquakes, flood plains, and other geologic factors when choosing where to build or not build." He mentions the possibility of working with a geo-tech company, many of which are located in California. A recent graduate who works in a consulting services group at Microsoft says, "My geology minor was more of a hobby minor. But it certainly caught the eye of the interviewers here at Microsoft." It was such an unusual combination — English literature, Spanish language, and a science.

Getting involved off campus

"One of the requirements is to go out to another university or to a summer program or internship to work in a field of Geology. A junior, who says he's learned the basics, the concepts, in his Geology minor, says, "I'll be taking a higher-level mineralogy course at another university to fulfill my off-campus requirement for the minor." A professor adds that the off-campus work could also take the form of a course in paleontology or petrology. Two students recently took a summer geology course at Colorado College.

Geology can relate to any field

"It's good to know what's actually going on below us. A lot of people, when they hear things on the news about the environment, don't pay attention because they don't know what it means. They think, 'Yeah, I have to recycle,' but they don't understand the effects or causes of it. Geology gives you a broader sense of whatever you are doing," says a junior minoring in Geology. A recent graduate, who minored in Geology and majored in math, comments that although he chose accounting as a career, his family "owns a monument-making company, and Geology affects that in a big way. They're always working to know a lot about the rock they work with." One recent graduate, a Geology minor and art history major, says her experience as a teaching assistant in Geology "gave me my first real teaching experience, and I really have found out that I love to teach. It's probably what I'll end up doing as a career."