Department News

Geology Students Go with the Flow in Hawaii

Two Albion College students walk on cooled lava during the 2013 Regional Geology trip to Hawaii.

Two Albion College students walking on cooled lava during the 2013 Regional Geology trip to Hawaii.
"My shoes melted; I don't think they were necessarily made for lava hiking," said Hannah Pankratz, '14, recalling an unexpected event during this summer's Regional Geology class field trip to Hawaii. The class was studying lava flow in Volcanoes National Park, a highlight of the trip.

Havens, '12, Sets Course for Ocean Adventure

Zane Havens, '12

Zane Havens, '12
Zane Havens, '12, is combining his love for the water, the environment, and adventure while serving as a quartermaster for the Hikianalia. Along with its sister vessel, the Hokule’a, the Polynesian voyaging canoe has been restored and is making a 1,000-mile trip around Hawaii with stops at 30 ports through October before departing for Tahiti next year as part of a worldwide voyage.

Geology Student Repeats National Win for Poster Presentation

Aaron Hiday, '13 For the second consecutive year, Aaron Hiday, '13, won a Best Student Poster prize at the Geological Society of America (GSA) annual meeting, held last month in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sigma Gamma Epsilon, a national honor society and sponsor of the GSA's undergraduate poster session, presented Hiday with its 2012 National Council Best Poster Award.

Havens' FURSCA Experience Leads to Internship

A photograph of Zane Havens during his internshipZane Havens, ’12, hasn’t met a riverbed he hasn’t liked. His grandfather Bill competed in canoeing events in the 1948 Olympic Games, his grand uncle Frank was a two-time Olympic medalist in canoeing, and his father, Keith, Albion College's swimming and diving coach, twice participated in the Olympic Trials in flat-water canoeing.

It’s no surprise, then, that Havens’ research interest at Albion has kept him close to waterways on which he could paddle. He spent the summer of 2010 studying the cloudiness of the water in the Kalamazoo River for a project funded by the College’s Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity (FURSCA). The FURSCA experience opened the door for a 2½-month internship with the Bureau of Land Management’s field office in Grand Junction, Colo., where he took measurements of stream discharge and looked for springs in the desert.

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