Endowment takes students to New Zealand

In 2019 Professor of Geology Rhawn Denniston and 15 Cornell geology majors flew to New Zealand, where they spent a block hiking and drawing detailed geologic maps. They mapped out shifts in the Earth’s crust caused by a series of prehistoric earthquakes. They saw evidence of a late glacial advance far into the valley floor. They hiked all day to a mountain topped by ancient sea floor and chunks of Earth’s mantle. There was so much to see that they took their final exam on the flight home.

The trip happened because of the LaFollette-Sitterly Geology Endowed Fund—established by Preston Sitterly ’69, Steve LaFollette ’69, and Steve’s wife Julie LaFollette. They created their fund in 2018 through the Greater > Than campaign. 

Geology majors are required to participate in an extended field course, which is often a highlight of their education, but the rising costs of travel, and their inability to continue part-time jobs, can make participating in a field course a huge financial burden, Denniston says.

“In some cases in the past, students have opted not to pursue their interest in geology because of the expense of a field course. Now, thanks to extraordinarily generous gifts, the geology department has the capacity to defray the overwhelming majority of these costs,” he says.

Looking back, Kira Fish ’19 says the course was even more special than she realized at the time. As she talked with fellow geology graduate students at UCLA, she discovered that most colleges are unable to offer a field course like Cornell does, so students end up going to field camps with other college students across the country.

“After these conversations, I can confidently say that the Cornell field experience is truly unique,” Fish says. “It was so special to complete my field experience with the geology majors I had spent four years studying with and growing close to.”

To top it off, she says, the department made the trip affordable.

“These trips would be impossible without financial support from the geology department and its donors, and that is something I know we are all grateful for.”