Geology Connection

Rhodes University Geology Department

I love teaching students, but if I'm being completely honest, I do miss being a student and being a part of a university setting. Rhodes University is in Grahamstown, and I decided I'd look up the geology department and see what they have going on. What a great visit! I loved the feeling of being back in the "student seat" rather than the "teacher seat," if you know what I mean. With this contact, I am acting, sort of, as a liaison between Rhodes and Kingswood to bring more awareness to geology-related jobs to the students at Kingswood. Essentially, to put in plainly, I am recruiting students to study geology at the university level. Sounds good to me! 

This geology department is over 100 years old. The majority of the geology students go into mining because of the gold and diamond and of course the Bushveld Complex which provides the majority of the platinum group metals in the world.

While that is all neat, and I could talk about geology for a long time, that is not why I am writing this post. I'm writing because I loved seeing that geologists around the world act so similarly. The professor I talked to today wore Keen sandals (I was wearing mine too), his office was an absolute disaster (papers everywhere, rocks piled somewhat neatly, maps hanging all over the walls, etc), he ended every email with "Cheers." The other student I talked with was a male who had a beard and talked about drinking beer. Yes, this is a geology department, and how amazing it is that the characteristics cross from one country to the next.

To all my geology friends out there, we sure are lucky people! It's a great community to be a part of.