VM: So, first and foremost, my name is Viridis Miranda, and I’m a Science Communication intern at EarthScope Consortium. How are you, James?

JG: I’m doing good. It is approaching the end of my workday, so I’m ready to get home and start the weekend.

VM: That’s super cool, and it’s super awesome interviewing you. And could you please tell me a little bit about what you do in your internship position?

JG: Yeah. So this summer, I am one of two returning interns. So last summer, I was at the University of Colorado, but this summer I am at the United States Geological Survey’s Cascades Volcano Observatory. I’m being mentored by Dr. Kellie Wall. She is a like, a volcanologist, geochemist, scientist here. And so my project is a little bit of a–not strictly geophysics, a little bit different take, but I am doing volcano research on this volcanic field that’s about like an hour and a half drive. And my goal for this project, broadly speaking, is to figure out what is the petrogenesis, or like, where did the magmas that erupted from this volcano like originate, like in the mantle? What were the compositions of that like? And then maybe a little bit of where was this magma stored right before it erupted. So I’m looking at three different units in particular for this, this project.

VM: That’s super cool. So are you focusing more on finding the magmatic origin, or finding, for example–you have some sort of different types of rocks, right? And when you study them, sometimes they come from either magma mixing or magma mingling. So are you focusing more on that? 

JG: Yeah. So the main focus, we think, so far will be the origins, like what part of the mantle was melted, and where did this magma start off, and then where we can, we can also investigate how did, maybe, like the crust that it went through influence the composition, and so we can utilize that through like geochemical data and a program called Magma Chamber Simulator.

VM: Cool. So aside from the program you use, Magma Chamber Simulator, what other geochemical appliances or what other programming are you using? 

JG: Yeah, so a big thing I’m using, I am doing a lot of Python. That is more so for the data visualization, making, like my geochemical plots, or just creating Python codes that will let me do like kind of complex computations, so I don’t have to manually. But the big emphasis will be just the data visualization, maybe a little bit of like GMT, or using programs within Python to make certain geochemical plots I wouldn’t be able to otherwise in say, like, Excel.

VM: Oh, that’s awesome. So are you doing kind of like discrimination diagrams, like with heavy metals, light earth metals? 

JG: Yeah, kind of, so I have made Harker diagrams, so just looking at some like oxide data. And then once I get my rare earth element data, I will be making some plots of that too, to kind of identify any patterns or relationships that can kind of inform us what was going on with these magmas. And of course, I’ll be using Python for that, because I can make those figures look a lot prettier than, say, Excel. 

VM: Oh for sure. Like using Python, and if you use a library that’s called Pandas, it does very beautiful figures. 

JG: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

VM: What do you most like about this internship position?

JG: Well, what I think I like most–so the stuff I’m doing is really right up my alley. So being a second year intern, you can actually decide where you want to go for your research, as long as you have somebody who’s willing to mentor you, and so you and your mentor can kind of design your own research. And so months before I applied to EarthScope, I reached out to potential mentor, and I was like, hey, I have these interests. Maybe let’s speak broadly about a project. And then, well, I applied to EarthScope. Got into RESESS, which, you know, helps, and then I got, like, a grant from the USGS which actually funded my project. So now I get to be at a place where I could see myself working at, like, maybe, you know, five plus years down the road. But I also get to create this project, and then I get to carry out and see through this project that I designed that’s really up my interest. So I am just very excited to be doing a project on an area that has like really interested me for some like unknown reason. I don’t really know why I was so drawn to it, but I get to be here at a really cool place, surrounded by a bunch of really smart people. So I just get to be somewhere doing something I want to do, and I was made possible by being able to do RSCESS again. 

VM: Oh, that’s awesome. So are you currently an undergrad, or are you a grad student? 

JG: I just finished up undergrad. I graduated a little over a month ago. So you’re able to apply to recess as long as you’re within a certain amount of months–maybe it was six months out, though you graduated from undergrad,and I made sure, leading up to it, that I still could qualify, because I know some things have changed since last year, but yeah, I just got my Bachelor’s last month. 

VM: Oh, that’s cool. Congrats. That’s amazing. Have any plans in grad school? 

JG: Yeah, I will be taking a gap year. You know, circumstances funding half the battle of grad school. I do want to do grad school, preferably, I will. I want to do a PhD. I’m open to a master’s right now, but yeah, I want to go to grad school. Probably do something volcanology or geochemistry related. It could be nice to maybe incorporate a little bit of geophysics, because last summer, I really enjoyed the project I had. It’s a really tough subject for me, but it’s really, really cool. But yeah, I do want to go the PhD route, hopefully not this fall, but the fall after that. 

VM: Oh, that’s pretty cool. I mean, I would say I know that geophysics, sometimes when you hear the word geophysics, it’s like, “Oh my God, geoscience and physics all into one” and but you’re super smart and super capable. And I think anybody that goes into a new project dip their toes for the very first time. They’re like, how am I going to able to start? But as you go on, you have pretty good mentors, pretty good advisors. The key here is having a good mentor and having good advisor and good committee members that could support you along the way. 

JG: Yeah. So yeah, that’s kind of the plan. Now, I wanted to go straight into grad school, but, you know, circumstances that were way out of my control, but I think the gap year will be good for me anyways, because I get some, like, practical experience in a geology related job, and I kind of get to, like, decompress from undergrad a little bit, because I was busy those last four years, especially like the last year, it was very tiring and hard to get through, of course. 

VM: Of course. I’m currently a master’s student and a full time employee at the Puerto Rico Seismic Network, and I remember my last years of undergrad, and it was pretty crazy. Especially field camp. Field camp for us, six credits, and it was insane.

JG: Yeah, yeah, I bet, yeah. My undergrad did, like the quarter system, and so by the end of the first quarter–so we were only in school from like, mid September to, you know, the beginning of December. And by that point, I was already done. I was like, I don’t know how I’m gonna survive two other quarters. I was just, you know, so tired. I did a lot in undergrad, like, you know, I was working two jobs, full time student extracurriculars, and so I was just stretched thin. And I Yeah, but we made it. And now I can kind of breathe a little bit, do something that I want to do for this project. 

VM: Oh, for sure, you’re doing something that you love. You’re getting practical and professional experiences as well, and in a future, like career goal as well. Also, like, aside from all the cool things that you do, could you explain a little bit about the field work?

JG: Yeah, so the area I am studying is the prior history–prior research on it is very, very poor. Like the last geochemical data we have on it is from the 80s, and geochemical data from the 80s is not as great as today, I’ll just leave it at that. So what I wanted to do was get new geochemical data, and maybe more of the rare earth elements than what you can in the 80s. And so I got what’s called the USGS Kleinman Grant for volcanology research. And so that provided us money through the field work. So me and my mentor, we went out for three days, two nights, to the camp near the field site. And prior to that, I identified sampling locations, and then we just kind of hiked around finding the outcrops to collect our rocks. And it was a very, very rugged terrain. It was a lot of bushwhacking. I got eaten alive by mosquito bites. You would have thought of chicken pox. It was bad, but it was a really cool, like area. It was very, even more rugged than I thought it was. You know, it was like heavily, heavily vegetated, steep cliffs, all that. But we got the samples we needed. My goal was to have three different volcanic units, and I wanted three samples from each unit. So about total of nine. We ended up with eight, just because one of the units was, like, very hard to get to, and it was like, the last day of the field work. And we’re like, we want to go home, and plus, like, maybe a little bit like cost saving measures. So yeah, we were just out there collecting rocks to then prepare for, like, geochemical analysis and make thin sections. So yeah, it was camping. But, I mean, it was a really cool area. The bugs, the mosquitoes were just awful. 

VM: They’re super they’re super awful. When you’re doing field work, you have to be like, prepared, like, for insects, climate, speak cliffs, wear extra pants because it can tear. 

JG: Yeah, I tore one of my shirts. I don’t know when it happened, but I was standing like, doing notes, and I’m like, there’s a big tear right there. But it was, wasn’t surprising, because the bushwhacking we had to do and like, wiggling through treaties. It was like the movies, like, you know, where there’s like the criminals trying to get past, like the security lasers going in all those directions. It was like that, both like tree branches and like, I didn’t know I could get that low or squeeze through that until that field work. 

VM: I like to think that us geoscientists, since we find evidence and  present exposures in the surface and rocks, and piece together a puzzle of what occurred a million years ago, I like to think of ourselves like a Tomb Raider, Indiana Jones,  type we’re pretty cool, like that. 

JG: Yeah, no, it’s definitely funny too, because the other areas I chose to go was just purely because on satellite it looked like an outcrop. I don’t know if it’s actually an outcrop or not. We’re gonna hope and so, yeah, it’s just like, just like being an explorer, except with rocks, I suppose, which might not be as exciting as some other explorers, but, I mean, it’s exciting for us, like holding a million year old rock in your hands. It’s pretty exciting. Super cool. 

VM: Yeah. So what other hobbies and extracurricular activities do you do, aside from all the cool things that you do in the internship?

JG: Yeah, great question. So now I will say, because of, like, how busy I was as an undergrad, my hobbies kind of like went away. So I’m kind of like rediscovering, like, what I would want to do. I where I’m doing my internship is actually really close to where I grew up, coincidentally enough. So one goal I have is just to get outside, more like, go do more hikes, maybe visit some of those areas I grew up, like in the forest, but through like a geologist’s point of view. So I guess more like geotourism. I got a cat when I moved over here, so of course, I’m spending time with him because he’s just a baby. I hope to just like game some more, maybe like when days when it’s like too hot to go outside. But I think overall I just want to go on hikes, explore some things I can now appreciate more. So now that I’m a geologist, it’d be really nice if I could lose weight, but that requires a deeper level of motivation that I currently don’t have.

VM: I mean, you could start first, like, for like, hiking and trails, and then, you know, work, yeah, work your way there, because it’s a form of aerobic exercise all in its own. 

JG: I just, I want to try getting out more, Rediscover some of the hobbies that I might have forgotten about since I was just so busy in college. And then yeah, kind of things like, think about doing maybe I’ll do a hike like tomorrow or something, I’m not sure yet. 

VM: Enjoy the little things. What advice would you give for aspiring undergrads going for this type of career, or high school students that also aspire into STEM related fields?

JG: Yeah, I will start with the high schoolers–so I interacted with a lot of like, first year undergrads. And one thing I noticed is they end up really loving geology. They love the idea of it, but they get kind of spooked by like, oh, you have to take two terms of calculus or two terms of chemistry and then, like, two terms of physics. And to them, it seems really daunting, rightfully so. I mean, I was terrified too, so we kind of get scared away into maybe doing, maybe just switching majors or doing the minor. So for those students who are just like, maybe starting undergrad, or, you know, are switching into geology from, like, a non STEM major, like, don’t let those requirements scare you away. You have a lot of resources at your disposal at your university. I’m sure there’s, like, a good support network. So don’t let those scary requirements scare you away. And likewise, you will probably come across a geology class that you just don’t kind of vibe with like it might not be your science, which I’ve been there too. Don’t let that, you know, put the flame out, because there’s just so much in geology. And then for those looking for like a career, you know, right now, it’s a lot tougher than what might have been. So you keep your head in the game. You are in charge of your path, your journey. You know, if you really want something, make it happen. I made this summer happen kind of just by seeking out my options. So just yeah, to keep your head up, remember the future and like, what it could hold, even if you even for right now, we’re kind of like living in kind of spookier times.But yeah, just don’t be scared. You are in charge of your journey, and if you really want something, I’m sure there are ways you can make it happen. 

VM: Oh, for sure. I’m a firm believer that in geology, we’re also very different. Like, for example, I come from a geochemistry background, but for grad school, I’m actually in geophysics and earthquake seismology and planetary interiors. And when I look back at my 17 year old self, I found physics and my calculus class very daunting. But what I thought was that, for example, if I didn’t perform well in an exam–I just got really bad writer’s block–and I tell undergrads all the time that you know math is not studied the same way as geoscience class and to take tutoring, and we’re all learned super differently on our own pace. And there are different flavors within geology. Like you could be a  good geochemist and not like geophysics, or you could be a good sedimentologist and not really like igneous rocks, and that doesn’t make you a bad geologist. You find your calling within geology and what you’re really good at and what you find appealing and what you find interesting, but to not be afraid to try something new, even though it might seem complicated at first, because you might be really, really good at it. 

JG: Yeah, exactly. I mean, when I did my internship last summer, I was in Boulder for eight weeks, and literally half of that time there was just spent learning, like, learning the code that I would have to use, and, like, writing it. And there was a moment or two where I just wanted to quit or break down and cry because I’m like, this coding is so hard. But now, after that summer, I can reflect and appreciate and be like, hell, yeah, I did that, and then I have that knowledge now. So you know, there’s always those moments where even grad students, they just want, might want to break down or give up, but you just gotta look at as a challenge, and when you overcome it, it’s so much more rewarding. 

VM: It is. There are times in grad school I put a lot of pressure on myself in order to perform well, because I want perfection. But it’s not. Perfection is progress, even though it may seem it like a slow progress, but it truly isn’t. You know, progress is progress, no matter how fast or how slow it is. What’s important is to feel motivated along the way. If you have really trouble with coding, and I can tell you, it helps to take a break and then go back, because sometimes it’s a syntax, you didn’t install something correctly, a comma or something like that? 

JG: Yeah, no, I definitely get that. Yesterday, I was actually trying to write some code to make more plots, and I kept getting an error when I was trying to read like one of my Excel sheets. And it turned out because there was an extra space somewhere in my column names I just did not see, and it was so very frustrating. But once I got that figured out, I’m like, okay, it’s time for lunch. I need to go for a walk.

VM: Yeah, go for a walk. Go into nature. Do some grounding. It really truly helps. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself, and you’re doing pretty good for yourself. You already know what your interests are, which is pretty awesome. And just take things nice and easy. My fiance says something to me always–slow is fast and fast is smooth.So what it’s, what he’s trying to tell me is, like, he’s a veteran, right? And he’s very structured and very organized. I am not. I am trying to learn how to be more organized and how to be more structured with my classes. But what he always tells me is that sometimes when you do things very quickly, without reading, without having a steady pace, it’s more susceptible to making mistakes instead of, like, seeing the big picture and dividing it into small little chunks, and that way you could see, like, what you’re doing wrong, or how you could do it better, and your progress is going to be a lot smoother than trying to do a whole bunch of things at a very tight frame. Because I think as students, we want to do a whole bunch of things super quickly, because we try to compare ourselves, you know, with other academics. But we all have, you know, our own individual journey. 

JG: Yeah, exactly.