The goal of this grant was to recruit 18 students at a two-year college into the geosciences by exposing them to fieldwork through introductory field courses with excursions to a variety of localities and by examining a wide variety of geoscience fields.  Students that became interested in some aspect of geoscience were then offered an internship opportunity at a four-year university doing real research in a laboratory setting under the supervision of a faculty mentor, with the opportunity to earn a $1500 stipend upon completion of an individual research project. The underlying idea is that since very few students are exposed to the geosciences in the K-12 school setting or through casual learning elsewhere, having some experience with what geoscientists actually do could encourage students to pursue a career in the geosciences.

            Women and minorities are traditionally underrepresented in the geosciences and were thus the focus population for this study, though no students were denied the opportunity to participate.  With a large (20,000+) student body and a significant minority population (79%) to draw from, the pool of students at Riverside City College (RCC) was a great place to test this program. In addition, the University of California, Riverside (UCR) is just a few miles away and interns worked with faculty researchers there to complete the internship program with a mentor.

            While at RCC, students who later became interns enrolled in field courses that included 1-day field trips to local areas, 3-day field trips to more distant locals and 7 to 10-day field trips through multiple states. Students were able to experience everything from local museums to industrial facilities to the grandeur of national parks (NP) such as the Grand Canyon. The majority of students had never experienced sparsely populated rural areas or camping in remote regions, so field trips to those areas seemed to have the greatest impact. Students often commented that growing up in an urban environment they had no idea what rural areas were like or that research could take place in anything besides a sterile lab setting. In many ways, the field courses opened the doors to a much wider world for the students.

            During the field excursions students were exposed to all manner of geoscience related topics, field methods and testing equipment.  Field exercises included, among other things, measuring water quality, mapping geologic structures such as faults and folds, identifying fossils, logging sections of outcrop, interpreting geologic settings and visiting areas of special geologic significance such as Petrified Forest NP and Meteor Crater in Arizona. Field excursions also included examination and interpretation of how humans interact with the environment and how the environment has affected humans in the past. The wide variety of experiences provided students with a broader view of the importance of the geosciences and the many different directions a career path could take.  Indeed, when given the choice of labs and mentors to work with, students chose topics that included paleontology, seismology, oceanography, geochemistry and hydrology among others.

            Over the duration of the grant (6 years including extensions necessitated by the COVID pandemic) all 18 stipends were dispersed to student interns who continue to work on a bachelors, have completed a bachelors, or have gone on to work on higher degrees in the geosciences. Only two students that started the program decided they were not interested in a geoscience career, those two were not paid a stipend as they dropped out of the program without completing a research project. Sixteen of the participants fit the focus population, nine of which were women, five of whom also identified with a minority group.  Thus, the program was able to attract and retain a significant number of students that likely would not have chosen a geoscience career path without having had the experiences the study offered them.

            The high success rate of this program clearly demonstrates that when given the opportunity to have field experiences demonstrating the wide variety of career paths in the geosciences, and remaining engaged through a mentorship program, students are very likely to continue studying to become geoscience professionals. This pathway could be used to greater effect on larger cohorts of students in order to counter the shortfall of geoscientists society now faces.  With a relatively minor monetary investment educational pathways such as this can attract and hold a large number of students, not only in the geosciences but in additional STEM and other fields as well.

            We gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation, Riverside City College and the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at the University of California, Riverside.

Last Modified: 12/23/2022
Modified by: William Phelps