Kutztown University Geology Program

Welcome to Kutztown University's Geology Program!
News!: Dr. Oakley and her five student researchers have just returned from their deep sea oceanographic research cruise in the Pacific. Please visit the expedition's website with blogs written by Dr. Oakley and her students, plus pictures to see how they fared!

We pride ourselves in being a small program in which every faculty member knows every geology major personally.
We have seven geology faculty, each specializing in one of the major branches of geology.
We have no graduate students -- all classes and all labs are taught by faculty members.
Our students are our primary focus.

Sarah Tindall
teaching seismic geophysics

Our geology program requirements were designed student futures in mind.
We prepare our students with enough fundamental understanding of geology to succeed in graduate school, and provide the practical field experience needed to succeed as career geologists.
Our course requirements were chosen to parallel the subjects on the Professional Geologist licensing exam.

Our faculty believe that involving undergraduate students in research helps students build a more permanent and thorough understanding of geologic concepts and reasoning. Research projects require students to pull together knowledge from many different courses, resulting in a more comprehensive view of our world.
Kutztown University does not have a graduate program in geology. Undergraduate students are our only focus.

Kutztown students in Henan China doing research

Geology courses Kutztown University seek to make opportunities to get out and explore.
These are some photos from recent Kutztown University Geology field trips.

What can a person do with a degree in Geology?
Take a look at some of the summer internship opportunities and careers our students have recently pursued.

We have a very active Geology Club that travels a lot.
The Kutztown University Geology Club runs frequent trips to local fossil localities, mineral collecting quarries, and museums.
Geology Club also travels to more distant destinations because the mountains are not going to come to us - we must go to the mountains! The Geology Club has traveled to Costa Rica and Peru to see volcanoes and beaches. We've traveled to West Virginia to go white water rafting, to Arizona to see the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, and Kentucky for caving.
The Geology Club also does philanthropic volunteer work for the community.

Kurt Friehauf - January 2012