Growing the Next Generation of Geoscientists: Rutgers-Newark Initiative Reaches Out to Newark School Children - Rutgers

It’s a great time to be a geoscientist. The work is interesting, the jobs are plentiful, and the pay is good. Yet few students today are aware of the opportunities in geoscience, not realizing there is more to the field than rocks and dinosaurs. Being launched this fall in three Newark high schools with a $1.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Newark Geoscience Scholars program is designed to expose city students to the current-day wonders of and career possibilities in geoscience. “We want to show students that there are careers to be made in geoscience. That it’s not just about dinosaurs and stratification in the Grand Canyon, but that it’s something viable, current and useful to society,� explains Alexander Gates, geology professor at Rutgers University in Newark and developer of the Geoscience Scholars program.

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