The University of Lynchburg recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation that will send six students to Wyoming for free next summer to dig up dinosaur bones and participate in career training in geosciences.
“I was so excited. I can’t think of another word,” said Brooke Haiar, professor and chair of the environmental sciences and sustainability department at the university. “This is our second time applying and the National Science Foundation is historically difficult to get funding through.”
The nearly $400,000 GeoPaths grant will cover travel expenses, lodging and food for 18 students over the next three years.
Students will receive six credit hours, which can count toward any major they decide to pursue.
Beverly Reid, executive director of career development at the university, said from this experience, she thinks students will “see the whole package and understand where they could see themselves fitting in.”
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Reid said her office will do workshops with students before they travel, geared toward helping them understand the careers that are related to the research they will be doing in Wyoming.
“There’s so many different things that you can do that are related to this and they’ll continue to kind of explore some of that while they’re out there doing field work,” Reid said.
According to Haiar, students will learn how to prepare dinosaur bones when they are pulled out of the ground, museum cataloging, microscope skills, and social media and outreach skills for science education.
A normal day during the summer for students in Wyoming includes breakfast in the morning followed by a drive out to the site, which takes about 45 to 50 minutes. Once the group arrives, they set up a shade shelter and Haiar assigns students their jobs for the day.
Depending on the weather, the group digs from three to four hours.
Haiar said there’s also a stipend associated with the trip so students who would normally have to work during the summer can take time off and participate, as well as a stipend for the fall class which focuses on career preparation and training.
Students will have the opportunity to listen to speakers who have careers in geology and have backgrounds similar to the group of students.
Haiar said diversity in geology isn’t high and she hopes the presentations provide encouragement for the students.
“I’m looking forward to hearing what they have to say,” Haiar said.
During the summer, students also will work with the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH) in the form of an internship, although not a traditional internship as most of their work will be done under Haiar’s supervision.
In a news release from the University of Lynchburg, VMNH Executive Director Joe Keiper said he is excited about the partnership between the museum and the university.
“This project is the intersection of exciting science and student training,” Keiper said in a release. “In addition, it continues a great collaboration with the University of Lynchburg, where academic and museum resources leverage one another.”
After the trip in the summer and class in the fall, Reid hopes students will get to see all the different possibilities of careers they could explore.
“You see them [students] just kind of develop into these young professionals that are like, ‘Now I’m going to pursue graduate school or now I’m going to work as a naturalist.’ That to me is such a turning point in their lives and to be in the middle of this is so much fun, it really is the best part of my job,” Reid said.
This isn’t the first year Haiar has taken students to Wyoming. The professor said she’s been doing this a long time and when she looked back at the number of students who participated and identified as an ethnic minority, the number was very small.
“By providing the financial means to cover the experience ... I’m hoping to kind of alleviate any barriers that are existing for those students to be able to participate; that’s the goal,” Haiar said.