My parents did not go to college, but all my brothers, sisters and I heard growing up was “you kids are going to college.” How do you pick what you want to do for the rest of your life when you are 18 years old? The one thing that I really enjoyed doing as a kid was camping and hiking in the great outdoors, but how do you make a career out of that? My dad worked for Exxon and rode in a carpool with four engineers. Anytime they were over at the house I would ask them about college and their jobs, and they would say “study hard and become an engineer, it’s a great career!”
So after high school graduation, I went off to the University of Texas to “become a petroleum engineer and have a great career.” Well, that was fine until differential equations math class. By that time I had already taken an introduction to geology class and found it interesting. It made me think back to the days I spent in Boy Scouts, camping and hiking. I thought it would be great to have a job where you were outside all the time, hiking in the mountains and making maps. So I switched my major to Geology. Even though I do not spend all my time in the outdoors, I did end up with a great career and a job I truly enjoy!

Matt Franey
Geologist