Located on the edge of the Canadian Shield and Michigan Basin , we offer a highly innovative, project-centered curriculum that was developed with the financial support of the National Science Foundation. Our classes and field courses emphasize learning through active participation and hands-on experience. The small size of our program fosters a close, personal relationship among students and between students and faculty. Our very active Geology Club organizes regular social activities and local field trips. Students also have the opportunity to collaborate with faculty on research in fields such as geomagnetics, paleoclimatology, and hydrogeology, and paleontology.
Our program also engages students in extended field trips in which students actively experience hands-on work with other unique geologic environments in North America. The map below shows the field sites visited by LSSU Geology students over the past three years. Travel to these exciting geological provinces is a part of every student’s sophomore and senior year. Students routinely work with the world-class geology of the Black Hills and also visit such places as Death Valley and southern Appalachians.
Our Geology program is at the forefront of developing innovative geoscience curriculum and assessment of student learning. We emphasize active hands-on student learning and this includes active involvement in undergraduate research. The opportunities available at LSSU allow undergraduate students to become actively engaged in interdisciplinary research projects that are both cutting-edge and publishable, not very common in undergraduate programs nationally. Regardless of what career path students choose upon graduation from LSSU, research at the undergraduate level is a valuable experience! Employers value research because it demonstrates the ability of a student to design and complete a project involving analytical and written skills. Graduate schools view undergraduate research experience as a head start on the skills that students will need to complete masters or Ph.D. theses.
Best Poster Award [2017]: Madeline Jazdzyk (Left) and Montana Kruske (Right) win Best Poster at the Michigan Environmental Heath Association (MEHA) Conference for their project on groundwater vulnerability.
Morgan Vanwinkle (left) accepts the No Spill’s Scholarship at the Traverse City No Spills Conference with Robin Oeming (Right)
Employment of geoscientists is projected to grow 5 percent from 2019 to 2029, faster than the average for all occupations. The need for energy, environmental protection, and responsible land and resource management is projected to spur demand for geoscientists in the future.
LSSU graduates are pursuing graduate degrees in geology at various universities around the United States:
LSSU has a great reputation for placing Geology students in graduate and professional schools, such as:
Geology at Lake State is a really strong program because of the hands-on experience that you get there. I am going to quote Dr. Kelso and say “students learn geology by doing geology”, and that is so true there. You’re definitely going to be getting your hands dirty and you’re going to be going out in the field and you’re gonna be looking at these rock outcrops. Ever since my freshman year looking at fossils all the way up to my senior year doing field classes, I loved it all!
Lake State has so many opportunities: you have international travel going over to Canada, the class sizes are small, and I know all of my professors very well and they’re all easy to talk to. They have helped me a lot and I don’t feel like I would have this type of interaction with a professor or even with the other people in my major if it wasn’t for Lake State’s class sizes.
LSSU has given me so much, not only in terms of an education that has prepared me well for a future in the world of geology, but also in friends and colleagues and mentors that I’ll have for the rest of my life. Had I not made the decision to come to LSSU I would have missed out on so much. That’s what has made my Lake State experience.
Career Paths
Median Salary for Geoscientist
(Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Placement Rate for Graduates
Entering the Workforce