Ethan Ossolinski – 2017
Ethan enjoying some time away from the big City
I grew up in a small town in the northwest corner of Connecticut. My fondest memories are with my two younger brothers playing in the state forest behind our house. A short bike ride away the hills offered some of the best hiking in the state. One trail left me with particularly profound memories. At the trail summit, after hiking through the mountain laurel, the trees thinned, and a massive granite outcrop provided a great seat for eating lunch atop the hill. From the summit, the Farmington River snaked down the shallow valleys, and the tops of the buildings in Hartford could occasionally be seen on the horizon. It was a place which stuck in my mind, and it has since acted as an anchor for me throughout all the many changes and moving since orientation at Lafayette.
I enrolled at Lafayette knowing ahead of time that Civil Engineering was what I wanted to major in. In sophomore year, despite confirming my interest in engineering I wanted to take advantage of as many different subjects as I could. I remember Dr. Malinconico’s intro course “Agents of Chaos” sticking out to me, so I added it a week in to the semester. That decision turned out to have a pretty big impact on my academic life. I enjoyed the course so much that the following year I took Sedimentology & Stratigraphy with Dr. Sunderlin and became determined to, at the very least, get a minor in geology. In this pursuit I took Structural Geology, went to Iceland on an interim trip and took Volcanology my senior year. The interim course in Iceland was my greatest experience as an undergraduate, despite having also studied abroad in Germany for 5 months as well. My biggest regret in college was not discovering the geology department my freshman year so I could have fit in a degree between my engineering courses. However, being able to get the minor and have all the experiences that I did while doing so was a huge blessing.
Upon graduation I landed a job as a structural engineer doing bridge design work for Hardesty & Hanover, a consulting firm in New York City. I now live and work full time in Manhattan working on various bridge design projects around town. My office is in Times Square, a literal universe away from the rolling hills of northwest Connecticut or eastern Pennsylvania. A year ago, I decided to apply for grad school and ultimately was accepted in to the Engineering School at Columbia University to pursue a masters in structural engineering. While I’m writing this, I am about to complete my first semester, and sadly have a final coming up. That is one part of school I am not eager to have back.
I want to make a point of noting that I am not, and never have been, a “Straight A” student. I didn’t get in to Columbia, or get my job, by having a 4.0. However, that doesn’t mean anyone should shoot for less. Apprehensive students should know that there is plenty of success, regardless of how they define it, available to them even if they make mistakes or don’t make the Dean’s list.
I’ve gotten where I am today partly through hard work, a message which is cliché and well understood. It is a prerequisite for achievement, but it does not make you unique. However, when it comes to the major achievements which have punctuated the last several years of my life, one variable has had a massively outsized impact, the people I’ve surrounded myself with. The most valuable gift you can ever receive is a friend or mentor. I got the internship that allowed me to land my job through a professor and friend, who recommended me. I was accepted in to Columbia not because my transcript set me apart, but because the people who vouched for me did. I can not emphasize enough how invaluable your professors are, especially at a small school like Lafayette in helping you land on your feet after graduation.
In a broader sense of developing personal relationships I urge current undergrads to engage with people directly. Don’t get sidelined for your dream job because you applied on a company portal where your resume was buried by hundreds of others. Pick up the phone, travel to an office or go to a networking event. Don’t avoid these methods out of fear of intruding, your future employer likely won’t remember your resume, but they will remember the aspiring geologist who cold-called them and asked questions. Nine times out of ten people are more than happy to help, you just need to take the first step.
I am not a practicing geologist, but I do work in a field that relies on them regularly. I come across rock cores and recently exposed outcrops around the city all the time. In my free time I have read up on the geology of the city and love to kill an hour at work skimming through geologic site inspections. Geologists, like engineers perform in the background, offering society their expertise and providing for the modern lifestyle. While the research positions in geology are enticing to a lot of students, keep in mind that geology is not a purely academic endeavor. There are so many industries which are desperate for geologists, especially in engineering. Best of luck to everyone with their future successes during and after their time at Lafayette.