• Geology as a Major: What’s It Like Studying Geology at UT Austin? (ft. Eleanor Coté)
    Sep 12 2024
    Episode 4 (part 1): In this episode of The Art of Subduction, Diya reconnects with GeoFORCE coordinator Eleanor Cote to explore the impact of hands-on learning and accessibility in geosciences. They discuss GeoFORCE’s 11th-grade academy's trip to the Pacific Northwest, where students come face-to-face with formations like Mount St. Helens and Crater Lake. Eleanor and Diya reflect on the importance of hands-on learning, especially when it comes to their own learning. Hear more from Eleanor on what it was like to study geology at UT Austin, how she overcame its challenges, and why it’s beneficial to study geology. Stay tuned for part 2! Did you like this podcast? Leave us a rating and review! Follow us on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever else you get podcasts. Got a lava questions or want to be featured? Email me at gaurdiya@gmail.com! Transcript [00:00:00] Diya Gaur: Hello and welcome to The Artist's Production. My name is Diya and today I'm here with… [00:00:17] Eleanor Cote: with Eleanor! My name is Eleanor. I am a coordinator with I've been a program coordinator now for two years, and I had the pleasure of having Diya as one of my students for two of the summers. [00:00:35] Diya Gaur: Yay! [00:00:36] Eleanor Cote: 11th and 12th grade, right? Yes. Yes. So, Eleanor was one of my coordinators for the 11th grade academy, as well as the 12th grade academy. Um, it was super fun actually, like 12th grade we did like the research project and then 11th grade is what you're coordinating now, right? [00:00:55] Eleanor Cote: Um, so I, program coordinators typically do, um, a couple of different things. Academies per summer, but it doesn't necessarily stay the same each summer. So, for example, last summer, I did, um, one of the 9th grades, I did two 10th grades, and then I did the 11th grade that you were on, um, then this summer, I did a 9th grade, I did, um, two 11th grades and then I did the 12th grade so I think next summer I'll probably be following along the two 11th grade academies that I had so I'll go and be with them on the 12th grade and then I'm not too sure what they're going to give me it kind of depends on just availability and then sometimes they want us to follow some of the groups that we had but it's not always a guarantee so yeah I think the schedule's out right now but I'm not I'm not too Like, I'm not for sure yet which one I'm doing, so, TBD. [00:01:51] Diya Gaur: Can you tell me a bit more about the 11th grade academy and what goes on during it? [00:01:57] Eleanor Cote: Yeah, absolutely. So, the 11th grade, as you remember, is probably Coined as one of our best trips just because we take our students to a completely new environment. And so, um, just a bit of background, uh, the ninth grade students, they stay in Texas and they do like, um, life of the sediment, learn about the rock cycle, um, just introduction to geology, um, sophomore year, they go to Utah and Arizona. So it's sort of like the American Southwest kind of desert environments, which it's hot. And many students in Texas know that that's, you know, what Texas is like too, so it's not unfamiliar to them. But then going up to the Pacific Northwest on the 11th grade trip We take students up to, uh, places like Mount St. Helens, Mount Hood, and we see, um, like these big stratovolcanoes that you're not used to seeing in Texas at all. I think there is one quote unquote volcano in Austin. It's called Pilot Knob, and it literally just looks like this. A hill. So, um, students get to see these actual, like, big volcanoes for the first time, and then we talk to them a lot about geologic hazards, and what life is like on an active margin, and so, life on the coast, up in Oregon and Washington, you are sitting right on an active margin, and so, there is a lot of tectonic activity happening, um, You got, uh, plates subducting into one another, causing, um, you know, melt, and so that's why you have this line of volcanoes running from, I think it's like Northern California up all the way up into Canada, and so we hit several volcanoes on that line. We start off Mount St. Helens the first day, we go to Mount Hood the second day, um, we go by the, I think it's the three sisters, um, we see like Mount, gosh, there's so many, I can't even remember the names of them, um, but you see them all in the distance, right, and they're kind of all in a line, and so we talk about them all being in a line, and and explain to students like how the plates are subducting and why it's causing all of these volcanoes to be sort of in line with one another, right? And then we take students to Crater Lake which is a caldera, which is basically a volcano that exploded very violently and then collapsed in on itself. And then we take students to uh, what's it called? The Newberry Caldera, so they see another version of a caldera. And then we go out to the coast and we talk about the geologic hazards happening out there. So the Oregon ...
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • Dam, that’s interesting: From GeoFORCE to The Workforce (ft. Jennifer Peña)
    Aug 29 2024
    Episode 3: How do hands-on experiences translate into skills in the workforce? On this episode of the Art of Subduction, we hear from GeoFORCE alum Jennifer Peña and her journey in both pursuing and working in the geosciences! Hear about her GeoFORCE experience, and how her experiences have helped shape her career. Did you like this podcast? Leave us a rating and review! Follow us on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever else you get podcasts. Got a lava questions or want to be featured? Email me at gaurdiya@gmail.com! Transcript [00:00:00] Diya Gaur: This is so good. Okay, so Jennifer, just if you don't already know me, which you already do, but my name is Diya. I'm a senior at Lamar High School, and I participated in the GeoForce program from 9th to 12th grade, so super exciting for me, and I know you yourself have participated in GeoForce, and now you're in Geology, so that's super cool. [00:00:48] Jennifer Peña: Yeah, how do you feel? Um, well, hey, Diya, nice to see you again. Um, I feel great, honestly. So, like you were saying, I was a student myself in high school whenever I went through the GeoForce program. Unlike yourself, I was actually part of the Southwest group, so I'm from Eagle Pass, Texas, all the way at the border. And I am the oldest of my family. So whenever GeoForce came to my school and they did the whole presentation and all the things. I remember telling my parents about it, and they were already kind of like, who in the world is giving you free trips to all these random places? It makes no sense. They were very skeptical at first, obviously, because, you know, parents. They were just kind of waiting for that at the end of orientation slide to say, okay, well now it's cost this much and this much and this much to do the trips. But they were very happy when it did not say that, so that was great. Um, and then doing it all throughout four years was pretty wonderful. I will say I did not initially get into GeoForce because I was in love with rocks. I was more so in love with the idea of having these new experiences, you know, meeting these new people, especially people outside of my hometown. And then it just so happened that doing it, I fell in love with geology a little bit. And after our 11th grade trip, which is for Geo4s, for people who don't know, is the trip that we go to the Pacific Northwest and we go to places like Mount Hood, Crater Lake. Being there, I realized, okay, well, I can do geology. Like, it's interesting. It's more than just these beautiful places, you know, there is science behind it and there's reasoning behind it. And so that kind of interested me. And then our twelfth grade trip, my year was the first year they brought us to Austin, and the first year they started doing, like, the Austin trip as the twelfth grade trip, and so it really kind of solidified that I was going to apply to UT after being here. I realized, okay, well, I'll do that. I'll do geology at UT, I'll apply, let's see what happens. And then I was fortunate enough to get in, and so then I did my Bachelor's in Geoscience here at UT. It was pretty, pretty fun. Pretty good time. [00:03:01] Diya Gaur: Wow. That's amazing. Actually, yeah, I can relate to that a lot, myself, as like, you know, I went on these GeoForce trips, and now I actually want to pursue a major in Geology, so to hear that from you, like, as someone who shares that experience, like, super inspiring, that's really cool. Yeah, [00:03:17] Jennifer Peña: it's, it's insane. And I don't think I would have, if I were to talk to my ninth grade self, she would not say, oh you're doing geology and you did this and you did that, you're working for GeoForce, like none of that, none of that would have even like come to my mind. But after all these experiences, I don't know, GeoForce just hooked me in a little bit. True, [00:03:38] Diya Gaur: true. So, I mean, how would you describe your overall experience, like, studying at UT and the geosciences there? [00:03:45] Jennifer Peña: Studying at UT was really incredible because it allowed me to do so many things within the realm of geology. I will say whenever I did come into it, I kind of came into it with the base, Of, okay, I'm gonna do geology, I'm gonna go to oil and gas, and that's my life. Like, that is what's gonna happen, and that's how I'm gonna make money, and that's how I'm gonna, like, progress. Because that's kind of all I knew, and at the time, GeoForce was more so interested in showing that aspect of it, because that was a lot of our donor base. And so, that's really kind of most of what I knew about geology. And then coming to the Jackson School, I realized there's so much more, and there's so many more possibilities. Like, I didn't even know about hydrogeology or anything like that until I got here, and I saw that people were majoring in that, and people were making their whole lives around things of that sort. So, eventually, I mean, I'm not a geologist ...
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    48 mins
  • Geology for Non-Geologists: Getting a Little Boulder in the GeoFORCE Summer Academies (ft. Mitchel Lambert)
    Aug 15 2024
    Episode 2: Join us on this episode of The Art of Subduction as we explore the various opportunities youth outreach programs like GeoFORCE offer to aspiring geologists! Diya and Mitchel share their journeys of their involvement in geology and youth outreach programs, and how these experiences sparked their passion for what they do! Did you like this podcast? Leave us a rating and review! Follow us on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever else you get podcasts. You got a lava questions or want to be featured? Email me at gaurdiya@gmail.com! Transcript: [00:00:00] Mitchel Lambert: Was there a specific topic or, um, thing that, like, you latched onto and was like, oh, this, I want to learn more about this, or this is what I want to do, geosciences, or this changed my mind? Like, was there a specific, like, topic or, you know, lecture or field stop that kind of grabbed you? [00:00:17] Diya Gaur: Yeah, so, okay, it kind of stems from the podcast name as well, but subduction for sure. Like, in the 11th grade academy, we kind of, like, learned about plate tectonics, because one of the main things that we were learning was And that is how these volcanoes, like mountain range, form. And for me it's just, I thought that was like, super interesting and cool, and like, one, I just don't know why, but I just think volcanoes are super cool, like, I could just keep on learning about them and like, just never get tired of it, it's just kind of been like that for me. And just also, I kind of want to pursue geobiology, and so it's like learning how geology interacts with people like us, and even just animals overall, like that's such an important, such an important aspect that we need to consider, and so it's kind of just my love for learning that kind of keeps on fueling why I wanted to go into geoforce and that type of stuff. But yeah, like, the art of subduction. [00:01:12] Mitchel Lambert: Perfect. I love it. [00:01:41] Diya Gaur: Okay, so, just a bit about me. If you don't already know me, (but you do). But my name is Diya Gaur, I go to Lamar High School in Houston, Texas, and I'm in 12th grade. I recently just went on GeoForce 12th grade summer academy, which was just last month, and I studied ice sheets in Western Antarctica and Mars. Can you tell me a bit about yourself, what you do in GeoForce? [00:02:03] Mitchel Lambert: Of course, yeah, so, um, I'm Mitchell Lambert, I am a GeoForce coordinator, um, I have just finished my second summer with GeoForce, I had you both on two academies, one this summer, one last summer, um, it was great, I've done a total of eight academies, um, one, at least one with all of our different grade levels, um, so, it's been great, it's been great. I don't know anything about geology. I do all of the logistic stuff and everything like that. As you know, um, like, making sure we get from A to B, I am not the person who tells y'all what the rocks are, what we're looking at, anything along those lines. [00:02:38] Diya Gaur: So, you didn't, like, initially come from a background in geology, what did you do before becoming a GeoForce coordinator? [00:02:45] Mitchel Lambert: Yeah, so my, you know, degree was in sports administration, um, and I did some stuff with Rec Soccer Leagues, I was a soccer coach, gymnastics coach for a long time. Um, I have been working in summer programs, though, since I was a junior in college. And so, for the last 12 summers, I have been working in some summer program here and there. Um, I was at Project Transformation for 10 years across two different chapters, um, before coming over to, to be at GeoForce. And I worked with, like, little kids from, like, 2 to 5, elementary, youth. High school, I was the person who sat over the entire site, and then I came on in like a full time staff role and was the person who hired young adults to work with kids and teach them how to live together and how to work with kids and how to, you know, settle disputes and confrontation as well as implement good programming for the students. You know, the logistics of how in the world do we get everything set up for a summer to happen? What does that look like throughout the year? Um, and so I've been doing that for 12 years now, um, which is kind of how I got in touch with GeoForce, like, in a way of like, when looking for the next thing, and it was like, Oh, this is a camp where I don't have to know all of the things? Great, sign me up. I'm gonna go and travel and do all of that, um, and do the logistics part that I know how to do. Um, as well as, um, they were looking for, for someone who does camp, and I do camp a lot, and so it was kind of a perfect fit for me to come into GeoForce knowing that I didn't have to know anything about rocks. [00:04:15] Diya Gaur: Yeah, well, that sounds amazing, but can you tell us a bit more about how you initially got into GeoForce, like, how you became the Outreach Coordinator and how you're now coordinating the 12th Grade Academy? [00...
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    53 mins
  • UT Austin GeoFORCE Academies: Training the Next GenerationZ of Geologists (ft. Jasmine Gulick)
    Aug 1 2024
    Episode 1: Here we have a chat with Jasmine Gulick, a coordinator of the GeoFORCE 9th grade academy. What is GeoFORCE? Why should you be interested in geology? — All the burning questions to get you introduced into geology, answered! Did you like this podcast? Leave us a rating and review! Follow us on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever else you get podcasts. Got a lava questions? Email me at gaurdiya@gmail.com! Transcript: [00:00:00] Diya Gaur: Okay, welcome everyone to the Art of Subduction. This is episode three and we're with Jasmine. from UT Austin, she is a coordinator for the Jackson School of Geosciences GeoForce program. So Jasmine, if you would like to introduce yourself. Hi everyone, [00:00:43] Jasmine Gulick: my name is Jasmine Gulick. I am the senior program coordinator for GeoForce, which means that I am currently the Longest standing and most experienced coordinator on staff with GeoForce. Um, I never intended to get into, uh, the field of geology. A fun fact about me is that my dad is a marine geophysicist, and when I was growing up in the way that geophysics was, Kids often are. I was like, I think geology's terrible and weird and gross because my dad did it. So obviously I wanted nothing to do with it. And then after college, I, uh, as I was sort of like looking for jobs, I was looking for coordinator jobs specifically because I've always really enjoyed logistical planning, um, and things of that nature. And I've always worked in education and, uh, summer camps. So, when I saw GeoForce, I was like, oh, this is amazing, this gets to combine my, you know, love of education, but also my love of science in general, and, and, you know, that outdoorsy nature of, of the program. Uh, so I applied, and I, I got the job as a coordinator, uh, almost six years ago now, so, uh, it's been pretty exciting. Actually, over six years ago now. Wow. Yeah, so it's been a really fun journey. I've had so much, so many amazing memories and experiences with this program, so I'm really happy to be here to talk about it. [00:02:06] Diya Gaur: Yeah, I mean, I'm really glad about your experiences as well. So I met Jasmine in eighth grade. She came to my middle school and basically gave me a presentation about what GeoForce was. And that's initially how I got involved in the program. And I think she's like the first person I really met from GeoForce. Um, I still remember the like presentation and the slides, which we were presented and that was in my science class during the pandemic. So even though it was virtual, I was like, Yeah, I like this program, I'm gonna stick with it, and I'm gonna see how it goes, and I think, like, GeoForce made such a big decision in what I want to do now, in, like, pursuing geology as an undergraduate major. [00:02:43] Jasmine Gulick: Always so wonderful to hear, and stories like that are absolutely why we do this program. Like, the reason I'm still here six years later is because of students like you, and the ones that really, you know, this is, uh, an experience that is so special because people don't get a lot of earth science education in school, there's like a little bit in middle school, and then the only earth science in high school is if you take it as an elective, and not every school even offers that, uh, so we find GeoForce to be so, so special and important because The geosciences are such an important field, um, and such a big field that really touches every aspect of our future, whether it's in industry or science exploration, space or the ocean or whatever it might be, right? So I love to hear the stories of all the students who've been touched by this program. [00:03:30] Diya Gaur: And like, also just like, I know GeoForce is mainly just for Texas, but I just think that one reason why I was inspired to start my podcast as well is because we don't have programs like GeoForce open to everyone. It's more of like a niche Texas type of thing, which is really open for Texas students. And I feel like if it weren't because of GeoForce, I really wouldn't be going into geology now just because I didn't know about it. But I think the exposure that I got from GeoForce is really like what's needed in other students as well. So I think even through my podcast, that's what I hope to achieve to help students. More specifically, high schoolers going to geology and learn more about it. Love [00:04:08] Jasmine Gulick: that. I love to hear that. [00:04:11] Diya Gaur: Yeah. So, I mean, quick question. When GeoForce, or people who are interested in GeoForce, when they learn about it in eighth grade, what usually are you looking for in those individuals? [00:04:25] Jasmine Gulick: Great question. So, um, we are specifically, when, so when we go to recruit at schools, that's not really the start of our selection process. That's our sort of. Hmm, how do I re say this? That's the start of our selection process in the sense that that's how we find the students who are ...
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    1 hr and 6 mins