Stimulating Hispanic Participation in the Geosciences (SHIP-GEO) at UTRGV is a program that raises awareness of the career opportunities in geoscience for students.
The National Science Foundation predicts a 135,000-geoscientist workforce demand in 2022. The awareness of the potential loss of skills and knowledge due to a large number of retiring geoscientists and few graduates is important because it will continue to be a beneficial field of employment over the following decade.
Geoscience is a broad field; everything that is related to Earth such as water, agriculture and petroleum is under its umbrella. It offers careers in engineering, environmental science, marine science and oceanography.
“We use natural resources from Earth every day and at the same time we release pollutants to the environment,” said Chu Lin Cheng, a UTRGV assistant professor. “We are constantly, daily interacting with Earth and [the] environment, and a lot of people [and] students are not aware of this.”
Most students in the Rio Grande Valley are not aware of the geosciences, making it one of the reasons why the National Science Foundation awarded UTRGV SHIP-GEO a $500,000 grant, for which Cheng applied. The grant is used to enhance the awareness of careers and possible advanced degrees in geosciences.
The National Science Foundation is aware of the lack of diversity in the work force, Cheng said.
“We only have the 3 percent of the Hispanic workforce in geosciences that could be environmental scientist, naturalist and petroleum engineers,” he said.
To achieve the goals of the program, which is to increase the knowledge of geoscience at UTRGV, diversify the field of geosciences and to increase the number of graduates in the field, career opportunities and field trips themed with different topics are offered to everyone at school. Several speakers from other universities are invited from to speak about geoscience.
“We offer career opportunities, we invite speakers from other universities. We invite students to expose them to different opportunities in geosciences,” Cheng said.
High school students are also invited to the field trip the program offers; transportation and lunch are paid. There are no requirements to be part of the field trip or to join the program, just the thirst to learn something new about the environment.
“We encourage students to work with faculty research, not just taking classes. So [students] actually get [their] hands dirty,” Cheng said.
Not only does the program offer free hands-on knowledge about the environment, but also scholarships to sophomores and juniors who are serious about pursuing a degree in geoscience. The grant offers 50 scholarships in three years time, awarding $2,500 to each student. The deadline to apply for the scholarship is December 2017. The scholarship application and information can be found on the SHIP-GEO page (http://www.utrgv.edu/geopaths/scholarships/index.htm).
Mia Infante, a senior majoring in environmental science, is part of the SHIP-GEO program. She is applying to graduate school to study marine science or oceanography.
“I thought that would be great to start working [to what] I want to do for graduate school, to get into a program where I can get recommendations and some more experience as well,” Infante said. “I want to focus more on climate change during research and also outreach about what climate change is, especially with current events. Now is the time to speak up, climate change is real and we need to start taking action.”
For more information about SHIP-GEO or the School of Earth, Environmental and Marine Sciences, call 665-2464 or email geosciences@listserv.utrgv.edu.
