My name is Natasha, I'm a senior this
year and I am pursuing a degree in Earth
Science. When I came into college my
freshman year I thought I wanted to
major in environmental science and I
took a earth science course purely
because it fit into my schedule the
class I took was natural hazards and
disasters part of the classes that every
week you kind of go through a different
topic if you learn about wildfires or
hurricanes or different things like that
the professor would take some time to
talk about the mitigation the different
techniques that geologists are working
on to then help protect people from
these natural hazards these natural
disasters and that's where my interest
really piqued because a lot of the stuff
about geology I maybe didn't initially
think was really that interesting or
really did pull me in but that idea of
using geology to help people I saw a
real need for that and that really
interested me. One of the coolest
opportunities that our science majors
have is our opportunity to do field
camps all our science majors are
required to do two field camps where you
go out and you do field work in the
University of Minnesota offer some where
you go to Montana and Wyoming I believe
I had the opportunity to spend some time
in Southern California and in the Black
Hills and that was really awesome to go
out and actually get real field
experience before I took the step into
my industry career or my grad school
career or whatever I do next. I had the
opportunity to study abroad in Kenya it
was a semester-long program that was
hands-down the best decision I've made
with my college career. I had the
opportunity to study in Nairobi the
capital for seven weeks and then I had
an internship for six weeks. Being able
to study abroad and finish my degree in
four years in earth science was a huge
advantage that's not something that I
know a lot of people that are in STEM
majors have I think of a student wants
to be successful
in earth science they need to be
passionate, they need to be excited. With
anything in life you're passionate about
and you're excited about it that's gonna
get you to that next step. After
graduation there are a lot of career
paths that I could go into and that's
one of the things that I love about earth
science. I don't have to be on one career
path for the rest of my life or right
after graduation you can work for the
government you can work for the National
Park Service the USGS you work for
environmental consulting firms geo
hydrology all sorts of different scopes
of earth science are open to you and that's
a great opportunity that I'm gonna have
when I do go into the workforce.
