Rocks! Rocks! Rocks! (or, How I Discovered the Best Department on Campus)
When I was a little kid, I loved dinosaurs.
When I got to be a little bit older, I started a rock collection.
When I was in high school, I would say that my dream job was to go on expeditions to Antarctica to drill ice cores.
I’d dreamed my whole life of becoming a geoscientist, but I hadn’t had much exposure to the earth sciences during my education, so I didn’t really know that a career in them was possible.
All I knew was that I loved my science classes more than anything else growing up, so when I came to Berkeley in the fall of 2021, I entered as a microbial biology major. I quickly realized during my first year that my intended major wasn’t the best fit for me; it almost became a running joke between my parents and myself that every time I called home, I had a different major in mind. I jumped around between nearly every biology program offered at the university, meeting with different advisors and trying to decide which major was “the one”, with little luck.
After my freshman year, I decided to take some time off from university, which ended up becoming a gap year. During my time away, I realized that I had the rare opportunity to really think about what I wanted to pursue. Hailing from a rural area, I’ve been fortunate enough to spend much of my life surrounded by beautiful places. I’d long known that I wanted to study something related to the environment, and I spent much of my time back home trying to get outside as much as possible. I’d spent my first year at Berkeley incredibly conflicted over what I wanted to study, but my time at home reinvigorated my desire to study the environment around me.
When the spring of my gap year rolled around, so did course enrollment. Although I’d had months to think over my area of study, I was still unsure. My science education before entering university had largely consisted of biology courses, so I’d never really considered any major other than a life science. But when I came to Berkeley I discovered that I liked (and was actually good at!) physical sciences. I’d always had a deep interest in geology, and during my first year I’d often talked about pursuing a minor in it. So I took a chance and enrolled in EPS 50, The Planet Earth, a course put on by the Earth and Planetary Science (EPS) Department which is the introductory course for all students interested in majoring or minoring in the department.
Every lecture of EPS 50 centered on a different topic in the geosciences, from climate change and the formation of planets to how earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. What struck me immediately was how engrossed I was with each and every lecture, and the labs. Our labs ranged from identifying different types of rocks to creating topographic maps to plotting how pollutants could leach into groundwater. The course also had a field trip to a few different localities in the Bay Area where we got to see firsthand the geology and structures discussed in lecture. I immediately realized that the department was what I had been looking for since I came to Berkeley, and I soon after decided to completely switch tracks, changing both colleges and majors to become the Environmental Earth Science major I am today. But it wasn’t just the course which influenced my switch.
During that fall semester, I also attended meetings for two student organizations I’d been wanting to join since my first year—our university’s Geological Association and Ocean Society (clubs which I later learned were both funded and advised by the Earth and Planetary Science Department!). The clubs have weekly meetings and also organize group hikes and camping trips throughout the academic year. Through these organizations, I found community in peers who shared similar interests to me. Both these orgs, and the EPS 50 course, introduced me to the department. It felt like home on campus to me, and I finally felt like I’d found the community I’d been searching for since I first came to Berkeley.
The EPS department is incredibly small, with roughly less than twenty students in each of the six majors offered. Because of this, it was easy to meet many people in the department, both fellow students and faculty alike. Many of the classes within the department also have a field component, meaning that students get outside to interact with the environment as part of their coursework, which was a major selling point for me when I switched majors.
Now, a year into my major, I still absolutely love what I study. I truly feel like that little kid from over a decade ago who was obsessed with dinosaurs and finding cool rocks when I sit down in lecture to learn something new each day. As someone who wanted so badly to study something environmentally related, I love that my area of study allows me to feel more deeply connected to the world around me. It is such an immense privilege that I can now look at the landscapes which surround me and have some guesses as to how they may have formed.
My studies even allowed me to gain a position with one of my professors this past summer, researching volcanic rocks from Hawaii. And as of this fall of 2024, I am studying abroad in Iceland, taking classes on Icelandic geology, volcanoes, glaciers, ice cores, and more! And as a member of the department, I also belong to the Mathematical and Physical Sciences division here on campus. They host a retreat in the Spring which I was able to attend, where I got to meet fellow undergraduates and speak with graduate students and professors all weekend long!
All this has, of course, been a not-so-subtle plug for the Earth and Planetary Science Department here at Berkeley, but I also mean by this an encouragement to study something that you truly love. When you have a motivation for what you learn in the classroom, everything comes easier. Not everyone wants to study what I do, but I hope that during your time at university, you study something that gets you as excited as I am when I look at a rock under a microscope (which is pretty dang excited).
I also hope to impart that you definitely don’t have to have everything decided before you come to college. It’s okay to figure things out and change your mind during the journey. In fact, I hope you do change your mind a lot during college—that’s what life is all about! It took me a long time to settle on earth science, but looking back, it seems obvious that I’d end up here. When I think back on the little girl who loved collecting rocks and learning about fossils, I rest easy knowing that she would be proud of me for following that passion today.