To Change the World, You Must Experience It
Fieldwork is an integral part of the Jackson School student experience. From the freshman NeoGeo Trip to our capstone summer field courses, our students are getting hands-on experience from the start. And while other geoscience programs have scaled back field offerings, we’ve ramped ours up, expanding courses in hydrogeology and marine geosciences.
Our undergraduate and graduate students have the opportunities to travel throughout the country and internationally to conduct research. They also benefit from the natural laboratory of Texas, which includes some of the world’s most avidly studied geological sites. While these experiences are invaluable, the average 6 week summer field course costs between $5,000 and $6,000.
At the Center of the Storm
Natural disasters affect all of us. Being able to react quickly and understand the long-term impacts of such events are critical to recovery. That is why the Jackson School’s Rapid Response program places scientists at the scenes of natural disasters shortly after they occur, as was the case when Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas communities in 2017. Dr. James A. Austin, Jr., a Senior Research Scientist at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, feels so passionately about the importance of these missions that he established an endowment to support them. Dr. Austin will match gifts made in support of Rapid Response dollar-for-dollar up to $100,000.
Education Changing Lives
A geosciences education helped shape Ken Neavel’s (B.S. ’82) life and put him on the path to a rewarding career. Now he’d like to offer the same opportunity to others through a scholarship fund he has created in honor of his mentor, Jackson School Dean Sharon Mosher.
“Without the encouragement of Dean Mosher, and the experiences I had working with her as a student, I am not sure where my path may have taken me,” Neavel said.
The Sharon Mosher Scholarship Fund prioritizes freshman and sophomores in good academic standing who are first-generation college students or those from historically underrepresented groups.