Earth Sciences is really interesting 
since it's such a broad science. So you
can really learn a whole lot about the
earth that you never really thought
about. You initially start learning about
more of the hard science—hard rock, which
is igneous and metamorphic rocks. 
So you'll learn about mountain building,
what not—what goes on under the Earth's crust. 
But there's also opportunities to learn
about the soft rock, which is sedimentary, 
and water. The professors here are
amazing. You get to know them really well 
if you stick in Earth sciences
because we have a small department. 
I think my favorite class
would be petrology, which is you look
at rocks through microscopes and so you
can see the crystals really close up—and
they're quite beautiful. And also in
petrology, we talk about how rocks form. 
And I just thought that was really
interesting. Part of the Earth sciences coursework is
to do two field camps. And the intro one
involves going to Montana for three-and-
a-half weeks, and you're pretty much
climbing up ridges, mountains—mapping the
different units all day, every day. You
get some breaks but it's really hard
work. But it's super fun because you
really get to learn hands-on. You learn
how to work in the field, which is quite
different than working in the classroom
because sometimes, 'Oh, it's raining now,' or 
things happen in the field that you
don't necessarily expect. So you kind of
learn to expect the unexpected.
Short-term goal here is to get into a good grad school, kind of simply. You can pretty
easily do that at the U of M because we have 
great research opportunities.
In my future, I hope to become more
involved in groundwater remediation.
So, helping with groundwater quality 
because I really care about the earth and
our environment, and the wellbeing of
our citizens and our people.
