 
If you're interested in learning about
the various systems of the planet earth
and how they work together
the Geology And Earth Systems Science
program at Morehead State will give you
the skills and knowledge you need to
pursue rewarding career in Earth Science.
>>MASON: Geology is a hands-on field
and, you know, it's nice to read about in a
book or see it on TV or
a computer screen but its, you know,
you get to understand scale and a lot of features you need to be out there.<<
Students pursuing the Bachelor of
Science in Geology and Earth Systems
Science at
MSU learn not only in a traditional
classroom environment, but also through
participating in hands-on exercises and
research.
Our faculty members are highly skilled
and active researchers in their
specialties.
And, MSU's small class sizes mean you'll
receive personal one-on-one attention
from professors who are committed to
helping you succeed.
>>REID: We are in the middle of world-famous rocks. People from all over the world
come here to see these rocks, which means I
don't have to go on big, long field
trips. Within a 50-mile radius
we can take kids out to see things that
some people don't see
even in graduate school. So, frequently they'll tell us that
when they do either get to their workplace or when they get off to graduate school
that they've done things people haven't done at other schools. They feel like
some of them are
ahead of sort of the game because they've been able to do the kinds of
things that typically wouldn't be done.<< The Appalachian region is well-known to
geologists and earth scientists across the
globe for its geological variety,
making MSU an ideal location for
students interested in studying earth
science.
Not only that, but students in the
program have the opportunity to travel
both within the US and abroad
to learn more about the diverse systems
of our planet.<<
>>MASON: I do and my colleagues put together travel study
trips. I've taken students to Ecuador, and the
Galapagos Islands,
the Outback of Australia, the Bahamas. I've done- I've taken a number of students to the high Arctic, where I
do research.
Up on Devon Island, a number of the
Canadian provinces. Last year we did
a trip and I took 
eleven students, they're usually smaller groups,
and we went out
and went to like Arizona, you know like the Grand Canyon,
and Oak Creek Canyon. We visited Sunset
Crater, Four Corners, the Goosenecks, you know,
Zion, Bryce Canyon, fins, arches, 
and on up into Utah. We stayed, you know, at the Great Salt Lake.
The reason behind this is a lot of
geology... Kentucky is
world-famous for geology. But we don't have everything
unfortunately but we've got a lot. This
year I'm planning the trip
and I get the students to help me put it together. But we go to the classic geological
sites, for example we'll go out through the
Sandhills in Nebraska
and visit a number of
national parks and monuments. We go, you know, to the Black Hills, the Badlands,
you know, Devil's Tower, Tetons,
Yellowstone, up in the glacier area.
This will be where the trip will go.<< Whether you plan on attending graduate school or
going directly into the workforce after
you graduate,
Morehead State's Geology and Earth Systems Science program will give you a
foundational education you may not
receive at other comparable universities.
>>WILLIAMS: They prepared me very well in the basics of geology.
When I went to the University of Calgary
for my masters,
and when I was there I was well ahead of the other students and
excelled very well in their program
at the U of C, and I
attribute that directly to my education
at Morehead State and it carried me on into the industry.<<
>>O'KEEFE: We have a 100% job
placement rate within six months of
graduation for
our graduates in the last ten years.
That's
really exciting to us and a lot of our
graduates have gone on to
open their own companies, they've gone on to graduate school and performed
exceptionally well. We have graduate
schools calling us saying, "Do you have
another student like so-and-so? We want
more of your graduates!"
How many small universities can say that
about their program?<<
>>GILLIAM: Well I got a good foundation in geology that allowed me to
excel in graduate school and then move on
to my career in the oil and gas industry.
A lot of the rocks that we have around Morehead are a lot of the rocks that we drill in
Eastern Kentucky, so
it gave me a competitive advantage.>O'KEEFE: We're one of only
three schools in the U.S.
that offers Organic Petrography training,
and we're the only one that routinely
teaches it to our
undergraduates, which is very, very
exciting.<<
>>REID: As you're aware there's been a big boom in the oil and gas
industry
that is probably going to continue, despite recent headlines
and when they get out, it's the same thing,
since they've seen this first hand, they've
seen these rocks,
they know that when they're now looking at a bunch of squiggly lines,
which, you know, in the gas industry that's what you see, everything's 10,000 feet below you,
they already sort of know how to correlate or
make the connection between the kinds of data that you get
from oil and gas exploration and to relate it back to rocks and
reconstruct the three-dimensional
environments that are-
that could have been anything from swamps, to deserts,
to beaches that are buried thousands of feet under the ground
and tend to host oil and gas and coal.>GILLIAM: Well, the hands-on experience that you get
from the professors is really heads above other programs
in the region. And, the detail and the-
the attention to detail the professors give you is really
a competitive advantage.>JERDE: The thing that really drew me to
a place like Morehead State to teach
was the one-on-one interaction with
faculty members. I had that as an
undergraduate, and even from my graduate
school days.
I thought that was something that was really, really valuable,
was that you get a direct connection
with the people who are doing the- the students get a direct connection
with the people who are actually doing the science.>MASON: In the classroom
you are focused on
a topic and you kinda push everything away and just
focus on it. But in the world that we live in
everything's
interrelated and the nice thing about
when you do these travel study-type
trips, is they can see these
relationships and in order to be functional,
you have to see relationships and that's,
you know it's a holistic type of 
education. It's the best education. Travel is the best education there is.<<
 
