By Paul Britt

The American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) is a great supporter of geoscience students around the world, largely through funding provided by the AAPG Foundation. That support comprises programs and students at all educational levels — from high schools (through the Foundation's Teacher-of-the-Year initiative), to undergraduate college programs, to graduate geoscience students. The support is institutional and administrative — AAPG Student Chapters can be found around the world, and those same students are provided with incredible educational and networking opportunities through student expos, the Visiting Geoscientist Program, and the celebrated Distinguished Lecture program. The support also is financial — in fact, four of the Foundation's seven funding priorities deal directly with geoscience students and educational programs. Of course, AAPG's connection with students starts with an obvious first step: Membership in the Association, which is free of charge through AAPG's Corporate Sponsorship Program, sponsored exclusively by Chevron. And that's just the start.

By Amy Atwater

Primates, rhinos, and giant snakes are animals that you are most likely to find in a tropical jungle, somewhere near the equator. Fifty million years ago, during the Eocene Epoch, that was not the case. During the late Paleocene and early Eocene, the Earth experienced one of the warmest periods of the Cenozoic, and rainforests covered North America, all the way up to the Arctic. The fossils of the plants and animals that lived in these forests are found throughout the West, and I studied the Eocene mammals of Big Bend National Park (and surrounding West Texas) as a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin.

I have been fortunate to conduct multiple field seasons in the park, but prior to my internship, I was only exposed to the Hannold Hill and Canoe Formations. My interest in the entire park's geologic history and my career aspirations with the National Park Service made me a great fit for the position as paleontology intern for Big Bend. Working and exploring the park this past summer has truly been the highlight of my time in Texas. I was elated to find dinosaur bones, shark teeth and Deinosuchus osteoderms eroding out of the Aguja Formation while hiking the Chimneys Trail. I found belemnites filled with calcite crystals while exploring in the limestone Boquillas Formation. I hiked to the giant, gorgeous ammonite fossil along the Hot Springs Trail on the morning of my twenty-fifth birthday. Beyond paleontology, I was dazzled by the cooling peaks of the Chisos which I enjoyed from Emory Peak and the South Rim, and the laccoliths eroding in the most beautiful shapes, culminating in the Balanced Rock at the Grapevine Hills Trail.

To say I loved my time as the paleontology intern at Big Bend is an understatement; it was life changing. Writing material for the Fossil Discovery Exhibit website and park newspaper allowed me to share my interpretive and scientific skills, and share science with a broad, diverse audience. I have traveled to many national parks, but I continue to be impressed with the treasures of Big Bend, and the motivation of the park and friends to share its incredible paleontological resources with all visitors. I am so proud to be a part of the Fossil Discovery Exhibit at Big Bend National Park. I hope to inspire other young scientists to find their passion by finding their park, and I would love to one day put on an NPS badge and become the official Paleontologist of Big Bend. I am so thankful for the Houston Geological Society and Big Bend Conservancy for sponsoring and organizing this opportunity.

By Eileah Sims

Big Bend National Park has one of the longest and most complete sequences of geologic time in the National Park Service and is the only park with strata exposing the K-Pg boundary. A new fossil exhibit, called the Fossil Discovery Exhibit, was constructed to showcase this amazing fossil resource. Another fellow and I were called upon to help park officials create promotional materials for the new exhibit. We wrote articles for the exhibit's website, as well as some for the park newspaper, The Paisano. In addition to writing these articles, we explored the park. We went on many trails including Lost Mine and Grapevine Hills. Park Geologist Don Corrick took us to several fossil localities where I found a Deinosuchus (large alligatoroid) tooth and various crocodile scutes as well as hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosaur) bones. This fellowship was a learning experience for me and I am grateful for the opportunity to explore this amazing park.