Masha Guzner graduated Verona High School with the class of 2011. She moved on to Montclair State University, where she became part of MSU’s first field geology course. This summer, Guzner and her fellow students spent two weeks in Stokes State Forest at Montclair State’s New Jersey School of Conservation (NJSOC) and then almost a month in Wyoming and Montana. Guzner, who will get her college degree in June 2015, wrote about the adventure in the latest issue of Montclair, the university’s magazine:
At NJSOC, home is a cabin with a lakefront view. Evening dessert is s’mores by a bonfire. There are no lights at night other than flashlights, allowing a view of the night sky filled with stars. We can’t stop talking about how lucky we are to be here. But even more exciting is the thought of flying West.
The magazine’s story is full of lush photographs that will leave you wishing to be in the Grand Tetons and not at a desk reading about them:
While in Dillon, Montana, our class is based at the University of Montana Western, where we work on the final mapping project: Block Mountain. We feel the technical, mental and physical training of the past six weeks. Topographic maps are our sidekicks, not just pages of squiggly lines. Field books are now nearly filled with our own notes and observations. Taking measurements has become muscle memory. We know we can walk distances that once seemed impossible, and when we cross an area, we understand the geologic structures around us. By the end of the field course, we no longer feel like ants roaming a strange world, we hike to confirm a hypothesis.
You can read Guzner’s story, and see all of its photos, here.
Photos copyright New Jersey School of Conservation, Branchville, NJ. Used by permission.
