2013-Chris Kelly

Chris Kelly

Major1: Geology and Environmental Geosciences
Major2: International Affairs
Thesis: Miocene Climate Evolution of the South Atlantic

300 Word Statement
Looking back at the college years, one could always imagine making slightly different decisions, but one aspect in which I feel that I “left it all on the table” is the excitement with which I went after the issues/subjects that were important to me. Although here at Lafayette we have much diversity in majors, affinities, and extracurriculars, it is our shared zeal that binds us together and through which we hope to enact positive change in our respective fields and lives. To me, that is the Lafayette ideal, something that various student and faculty mentors have exemplified for me: to ceaselessly pursue your passions with fervor.

As President of LEAP (Lafayette Environmental Awareness & Protection), I strove to bring sustainability to a higher echelon in the collective campus consciousness through student collaboration and co-sponsorship. To this end, we helped to spearhead Earth Jamnesty 2011, and bring a host of organizations and themes under the environmental umbrella for that year’s Earth Week.

But sustainability is inextricably related to social justice as well, and one without the other is oxymoronic. During my last two years at Lafayette, I was a peer educator through Kaleidoscope, a program that seeks to foster greater social justice awareness and facilitate intercultural conversation within our communities. Additionally, I also learned myself, and began to analyze the world around me in a brand new fashion. I believe that thirst for knowledge, a manifestation of passion, is another critical component of the Lafayette ideal.

I leave Lafayette exhilarated for the next step. Conducting sea level research on the east coast of South Africa through a Fulbright scholarship, I want to continue to weave together environmental science and civic outreach, eventually as a climate scientist or policy maker. Wherever this path leads, however, I cannot wait to fully pursue and engage it.

Academic Activities and Total Years Involved

• Fulbright Full Research Grant to South Africa, May 2013   1
  From July 2013 to March 2014 I will be conducting sea level research under Dr. Andy Green at University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa.  We intend to scour the east coast for “beachrock” deposits from which we can parse together a record of past sea level fluctuations for the last 10,000 years. We hope to be able to contextualize modern sea level rise and issue appropriate recommendations for zoning and development strategies.
• 2012 Goldwater Scholar    1
  Awarded annually to students who represent excellence in STEM fields
• Phi Beta Kappa Member    1
  Extended to those students who have demonstrated both breadth and depth of liberal learning
• Sigma Iota Rho    1
  National honor society for international studies
• 2012 James L. Dyson Geology Award   1
  Awarded to a geology student with high achievement and character
• Marquis Scholar    4
  Lafayette College’s highest academic scholarship
• 2010 Rexroth Prize    1
  Awarded annually to students who have achieved meritoriously in German
• 2012 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Summer Student Fellow   1
  In the summer of 2012, I worked at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, conducting research on coral reefs from Palau in an attempt to discern how their growth is responding to climate change/ocean acidification.
• 2011 EXCEL Scholar    1
  In the summer of 2011, I served as an EXCEL Scholar under Dr. Kira Lawrence studying the paleoclimatic evolution of the southwest Pacific over the last three million years.
• Honors Thesis    1
  I have had the pleasure of undertaking a senior honors thesis with Dr. Kira Lawrence on the climate of the south Atlantic from the late Miocene to the present (~10 million years).
• 2013 Northeast Geological Society of America Conference    1
  In March 2013, I gave a talk at NE GSA in Bretton Woods, NH titled ‘Exploring Hemispheric and Ocean Basin Climatic Symmetry From the Late Miocene to the Present Using a Novel Atlantic Ocean Surface Temperature Record.’

Campus Activities and Total Years Involved

• LEAP (Lafayette Environmental Awareness/Protection)    4
  I have been involved in LEAP in various capacities during my four years.  I have served as the chair of the Carbon Committee that works to improve awareness as to climate change issues for at least two years.  I also was Secretary for sophomore year, and President of the organization my junior year.
• 2011 Earth Week Committee    1
  As chair of the 2011 Earth Week Committee, I helped to organize and plan events for that year’s Earth Week, including hosting meetings for faculty, staff, and student representatives.
• Resident Advisor    2
  For two years, I served as Resident Advisor for the TREEHouse (The Real Environmental Experience) in Keefe, a special interest floor for students who prioritized personal sustainable living and a commitment to environmental issues.
• Kaleidoscope Peer Facilitator    2
  Junior and senior years I have been heavily involved as a Kaleidoscope Peer facilitator.  The group seeks to foster greater social justice awareness and facilitate intercultural conversation within our communities.
• Teaching Assistant    2
  Sophomore and junior year I was a TA for Geo 115 and Geo 120, introductory geology courses on geologic hazards and Earth’s climate. My duties included answering lab-related questions, grading lab exercises, and basic lab setup.
• Sustainability Committee    3
  Since sophomore year, I have served on the campus Sustainability Committee, a group of faculty, staff, and students that works to improve the environmental friendliness and overall sustainability of Lafayette College.
• Technology Clinic    1
  During sophomore year we worked as an interdisciplinary group of students to invent/improve upon a renewable energy low-speed vehicle concept for marketing within the Lafayette College campus community as well as the greater Slate Belt community.
• Holocaust Remembrance Committee    2
  During my sophomore and senior years, I served on the Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Committee, a multi-club coalition spearheaded by Hillel, to bring greater campus awareness to the event, as well as to the remembrance of genocides in general.
• Campus Tour Guide    1
  During my first year, I led campus tours and participated in various admissions events and panels.

Community Service and Total Years Involved

• Assorted Geoscience Outreach Events    4
  Examples include a fossil-based educational outreach program with Easton elementary school students with Dr. Kira Lawrence, a dinosaur lab for urban middle school kids with Dr. Dave Sunderlin, and on-campus mineral identification in conjunction with LEAP.
• Assorted LEAP Outreach Events    2
  Examples include a pinwheel renewable energy lesson plan for Easton elementary school students and literacy day activities in which we played pictionary.
• Green Moveout    2
  Sophomore year, I was on the Green Moveout Committee, assisting Sarah Yencha and Evan Gooberman with the planning and procurement of volunteers to handle the influx of donations associated with end of the year moveout. We also delivered the packaged food to local kitchens/shelters, and the bedding to the humane society.   The subsequent year I volunteered to help with the event, but did not serve directly on the committee.

Athletics and Total Years Involved

• Ultimate Frisbee    1
  For half of my first year I played club Ultimate Frisbee.
• Running Club    1
  Before Running Club merged with Outdoors Society, I ran 2-3 times a week with the recreational Running Club.  We also participated in monthly local community 5k races.

Special Interest and Total Years Involved

• Lafayette Outdoors Society    4
  I have been active in the Outdoors Society throughout my time at Lafayette, participating in hiking, canoeing, birding, etc.
• 2012 Semester in Wildlife Monitoring/Conservation Biology in Namibia    1
  For three months during my junior spring study abroad I lived in a tent in the rural northwest Kunene region of Namibia, conducting wildlife monitoring.  Our affiliate NGO worked with communal conservancies to help build capacity to eventually shift complete autonomy over wildlife/natural resource management over to the community. This was done in concert with the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism to devolve conservation to the community level after independence from South Africa in 1990.
• 2011 Geological & Paleobiological Evolution of Ecuador & the Galapagos Islands Interim Trip    1
  In January 2011, I traveled with Dr. Malinconico and Dr. Sunderlin to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands to study the geology and paleobiology of the two regions.  Referred to colloquially as ‘Highlands and Islands,’ the trip analyzed various facets of geoscience: from the looming Andean stratovolcanoes to the mountain precipitation patterns to the remarkable evolution of the Galapagos tortoises, the trip taught me to think a different way about the landscapes around us, even here in Pennsylvania.
• 2011 Wyoming Geological Field Mapping & Report    1
  In the fall of 2011, I had the opportunity to travel with my structural geology class to Grey Bull, Wyoming in the Big Horn Basin and conduct a week of field mapping. We mapped sedimentological and structural features to subsequently draft a full report on the depositional and deformational history of the Sheep Mountain Anticline area.