Abby saves the world
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Abby Saves the World
Here's the story as its unfolding...
My name is not Abby. My name is Dave. I'm Abby's dad.
I am not a particularly amazing dad. Like most of the parents I've met, I have no idea what I'm doing. I would describe my parenting style as "One Legged, Blind Man Playing Basketball".
Fortunately I have the help of an amazing partner and together we experiment and generally stumble about trying to parent one crisis at a time. And as luck would have it, and despite our efforts, Abby has made us look good.
In high school, she got As, had multiple jobs, and was captain of the track team. She learned to pole vault and high jump and long jump and run like the wind well enough to (more than once) generate enough points by herself to carry the team to victory. My wife will take credit for these athletic genes and I don't argue. I contributed height.
Somewhere in there, she developed a thirst to know more, explore more, achieve more. Along the way, she met a teacher that matched that enthusiasm and taught her to love geology. Together, we'd (Kat and I usually went too) hunt for gold, rock climb, look for desert tortoises and explore old mines. Abby was hooked.
However, earth science in high school is not a hotbed of intellectual enthusiasm. In fact more often than not, its known as "Rocks for Jocks" and is a place students go to avoid education.
Abby was disappointed that her schedule didn't allow her to take it. So to solve her problem, she skipped it, rearranged her high school schedule and enrolled in community college in the afternoons.
She carried this enthusiasm to college. She chose to attend a little liberal arts college in Illinois for its small size, commitment to travel and opportunity to make real connections with her professors. The only problem was that it didn't offer geology as a major.
Not one to be thwarted, she designed her own specialized major and submitted a proposal to her administration to add geology to the list of majors offered. The school went for it but to complete it she would need to complete some things outside of the classes the school offered. The first stop was Iceland.
She spent the summer studying glaciers and volcanoes along the divergent boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates. A life changing experience to be sure.
She returned inspired to help in the effort to heal the world. She declared a second major in Sustainability that fall. But while her enthusiasm was growing, competing in cross country, the diving team and the track team, while attempting to complete two majors, one of which was of her own design and required her to complete multiple challenges outside of school, was in danger of being too much.
The crux of the problem was that to pull this off, she would need to find a way to do authentic, documentable, first-hand research in order to complete the geology major. That and she still needed to find time for all the classes in the second major as well.
The solution presented itself a couple of months later on a research field trip to the Gulf of Mexico.
A class oceanography trip allowed her to design a dredging and filtering study of microplastics in the ocean floor. She wrote a paper on the surprising findings (most of the plastics were from clothing???) that her professor said might just be good enough to submit to a professional organization for review. A month later, she was flown to San Francisco to present her findings to business professionals, PhDs and grad students at the American Geophysical Union conference.
The response was awesome! The general consensus was that having an undergraduate attend the convention was unusual. Having one present at the convention was rarer still. A week later, she had made professional connections with real world job possibilities following graduation.
In the meantime, she had an offer to join a small group of students that would be living and researching on the Juneau Ice Field. The opportunity to do original research will allow her access to the missing data she needs to complete her major while at the same time giving her usable experience to complete her major in sustainability.
The Juneau Ice Field Research Project is a two month long research trip across the Juneau Ice Field. For those that are unfamiliar, the Juneau Ice Field is a 1500 square mile area of ice that connects and covers 40 major glaciers in Alaska and British Columbia. To complete the study, students will traverse 75 miles across the field on foot. They'll use cross country skis for the flat sections, crampons for the ice and boots for the rest. All the while working on their personal research projects. An amazing opportunity certainly. But an expensive one.
While summer jobs, on campus work and parental sponsorship has been enough to cover the costs of Iceland, this is more than her funds can manage. Abby is looking to raise money to cover the cost of equipment (skis, tents, backpacks, cold weather gear, etc.), plane fare, food for 2 months as well as the fees associated with the program (helicopter support, maintaining the permanent research stations, group equipment, training, insurance, professor salaries, etc.)
And this is where you come in. If you would like to contribute to this chapter in her story, any amount would help. Even if you can't help at this time, if you could share this message with others, who knows what's possible. Add a little blurb about what you know of her and maybe we can make it happen.
I can't wait to share the next chapter in her amazing story!
Thanks for all the love and support.
Abby's Dad. (Dave)
Here's the story as its unfolding...
My name is not Abby. My name is Dave. I'm Abby's dad.
I am not a particularly amazing dad. Like most of the parents I've met, I have no idea what I'm doing. I would describe my parenting style as "One Legged, Blind Man Playing Basketball".
Fortunately I have the help of an amazing partner and together we experiment and generally stumble about trying to parent one crisis at a time. And as luck would have it, and despite our efforts, Abby has made us look good.
In high school, she got As, had multiple jobs, and was captain of the track team. She learned to pole vault and high jump and long jump and run like the wind well enough to (more than once) generate enough points by herself to carry the team to victory. My wife will take credit for these athletic genes and I don't argue. I contributed height.
Somewhere in there, she developed a thirst to know more, explore more, achieve more. Along the way, she met a teacher that matched that enthusiasm and taught her to love geology. Together, we'd (Kat and I usually went too) hunt for gold, rock climb, look for desert tortoises and explore old mines. Abby was hooked.
However, earth science in high school is not a hotbed of intellectual enthusiasm. In fact more often than not, its known as "Rocks for Jocks" and is a place students go to avoid education.
Abby was disappointed that her schedule didn't allow her to take it. So to solve her problem, she skipped it, rearranged her high school schedule and enrolled in community college in the afternoons.
She carried this enthusiasm to college. She chose to attend a little liberal arts college in Illinois for its small size, commitment to travel and opportunity to make real connections with her professors. The only problem was that it didn't offer geology as a major.
Not one to be thwarted, she designed her own specialized major and submitted a proposal to her administration to add geology to the list of majors offered. The school went for it but to complete it she would need to complete some things outside of the classes the school offered. The first stop was Iceland.
She spent the summer studying glaciers and volcanoes along the divergent boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates. A life changing experience to be sure.
She returned inspired to help in the effort to heal the world. She declared a second major in Sustainability that fall. But while her enthusiasm was growing, competing in cross country, the diving team and the track team, while attempting to complete two majors, one of which was of her own design and required her to complete multiple challenges outside of school, was in danger of being too much.
The crux of the problem was that to pull this off, she would need to find a way to do authentic, documentable, first-hand research in order to complete the geology major. That and she still needed to find time for all the classes in the second major as well.
The solution presented itself a couple of months later on a research field trip to the Gulf of Mexico.
A class oceanography trip allowed her to design a dredging and filtering study of microplastics in the ocean floor. She wrote a paper on the surprising findings (most of the plastics were from clothing???) that her professor said might just be good enough to submit to a professional organization for review. A month later, she was flown to San Francisco to present her findings to business professionals, PhDs and grad students at the American Geophysical Union conference.
The response was awesome! The general consensus was that having an undergraduate attend the convention was unusual. Having one present at the convention was rarer still. A week later, she had made professional connections with real world job possibilities following graduation.
In the meantime, she had an offer to join a small group of students that would be living and researching on the Juneau Ice Field. The opportunity to do original research will allow her access to the missing data she needs to complete her major while at the same time giving her usable experience to complete her major in sustainability.
The Juneau Ice Field Research Project is a two month long research trip across the Juneau Ice Field. For those that are unfamiliar, the Juneau Ice Field is a 1500 square mile area of ice that connects and covers 40 major glaciers in Alaska and British Columbia. To complete the study, students will traverse 75 miles across the field on foot. They'll use cross country skis for the flat sections, crampons for the ice and boots for the rest. All the while working on their personal research projects. An amazing opportunity certainly. But an expensive one.
While summer jobs, on campus work and parental sponsorship has been enough to cover the costs of Iceland, this is more than her funds can manage. Abby is looking to raise money to cover the cost of equipment (skis, tents, backpacks, cold weather gear, etc.), plane fare, food for 2 months as well as the fees associated with the program (helicopter support, maintaining the permanent research stations, group equipment, training, insurance, professor salaries, etc.)
And this is where you come in. If you would like to contribute to this chapter in her story, any amount would help. Even if you can't help at this time, if you could share this message with others, who knows what's possible. Add a little blurb about what you know of her and maybe we can make it happen.
I can't wait to share the next chapter in her amazing story!
Thanks for all the love and support.
Abby's Dad. (Dave)
Organizer
David Holt
Organizer
Claremont, CA