Geology-Major Recruitment Grant Given To Solano Community College

SOLANO COUNTY, CA – The Solano Community College Geology Department was included in a $1 million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation through the University of California, Davis to recruit low-income students into geology majors through field experience and to support those students with 50 undergraduate and 21 graduate scholarships. officials said.

“The grant will help foster and recruit geology majors through ‘first experience’ geology fieldtrips,” said SCC Geology and Geography Instructor Danielle Widemann. “Solano, along with seven other community colleges, will be part of a series of joint UC Davis-junior college geology field trips.”

The grant begins next year and promotes two important goals: education and research. Participating schools are expected to recruit and retain highly qualified, low-income students into their programs by supporting them from their gateway geoscience course through graduation, college officials said.

Success will be measured by determining if undergraduate field instruction enhances classroom content understanding and student engagement, and whether the novelty of working in an unfamiliar field environment can negatively impact student experiences and learning.

According to the American Geosciences Institute’s Status of the Geoscience Workforce 2016 report, there were approximately 324,000 geoscientists employed in the U.S. in 2014. By 2014, 48 percent of the workforce is expected to retire, resulting in a shortage of 90,000 geoscientists in the workforce. The study also stated 33 percent of bachelor’s, 23 percent of master’s, and 16 percent of doctoral graduates began their education at the community college level.

SCC offers an associate degree in Science, General designed to provide students with a basic science background and prepare them to transfer to a four-year university to complete their degree in geology.

Visit solano.edu/sciences/disciplines.php for more information.

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