High School Research and Real-World Impact: Mitchel Lambert on GeoForce’s 12th Grade Academy

What do soccer, summer camps, and volcanoes have in common? For Mitchel Lambert, they all came together in the perfect storm to shape his role as a coordinator for GeoForce. In this episode, Mitchel opens up about his unexpected journey from sports administration to guiding high school students through the wild world of geology. From drone mapping to discussions about earthquakes, we dive into how GeoForce takes learning outside the classroom and shows students the real impact of geoscience on their lives.

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Transcript

Personal Experiences and Reflections

[00:24:20] Diya Gaur: What was one of your favorite, like, moments during the 12th grade academy?

There were just so many. If I were to answer the question myself, I think one thing, not my favorite, but something memorable that I remember is that when we were stuck at the vending machines on the first day of camp, um, I was with my best friend Nadia, who you also know, and we went to go buy some snacks from the vending machines, and so we were trying to buy multiple items at once and then, you know, It just wouldn't dispense, and so Jennifer almost came up and checked on us, like, Okay, like, what is going on?

And, I mean, it's just, kind of those moments that you also carry, like, as a GeoForce student, the interactions with staff members, fellow GeoForce people, it's just amazing, and so that's, like, a lot of things that I can take away from it. You know, my interactions with people, like my fellow students there, the staff members, as well as the guest speakers.

Like, I've had such amazing conversations with some of the, like, guest speakers and also the research group leads and mentors, which we had at the Kiesling Lab, which is where I was doing the ice sheet modeling at J. J. Pickle. I just had so much of, like, meaningful conversation added to my experience there.

It kind of just gave me another fresh perspective into the geologies. So I mean, that's super memorable and like one of my favorite parts of geology and geoforce. So I want to ask that question to you. What is your favorite part of geoforce, more specific to the 12th grade academy? 

[00:25:48] Mitchel Lambert: Yeah, so I, pre summer, um, Jennifer and I had a number of conversations with Jamie Austin who, you know, has been a part of geoforce for a long time.

He's been working at UTIG for 46 years. Like he has been around from geoforce. Um, early on, he used to lead every single one of our 12th grade academies, and what he would do, he was telling us, like, he would make students stand up at the front, in front of all of their peers, and tell them, do their career aspiration pitch, of like, this is who I am, like, this is where I'm from, I, this is why I initially got involved in GeoForce, you know, and this is what I wanna do with my, you know, when I go to school, when I go to college, this is what I wanna study, and this is what I wanna do for my career.

Um, and he was like, I'm gonna make them stand up in front of everybody. In my head, I'm like, I am the a huge extrovert, I'm here for it. I have worked with so many kids who are like not about it at all and speak in front of people, and I'm like, how is this gonna go? He is like certain that this is gonna work, and I am like, I don't know if this is gonna work, but like, night one of that first group that went up, when Tim Gouge's group went up, and they all, like, had been practicing throughout the day, and they all crushed it, I was like, oh, this is gonna be, like, meaningful, to, like, sit here and listen to all the students and have them, you know, talk about, you know, how they got engaged with GeoForce, what they wanna do, um, hearing all these people saying, like, oh, I'm gonna go, uh, be a cardiac surgeon, or I'm gonna do Neurosurgery, or I