The Guatemala GeoHazards program is an internship opportunity for undergraduates that features one-on-one faculty-student mentoring of research both in the field in Guatemala and in the lab at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The program is funded by the NSF International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program.

General Structure

Each year of this three-year program, a cohort of 6-7 U.S. and 3 Guatemalan undergraduate students will conduct field research for three weeks in January in Guatemala. Students will work in topical research teams (volcanology, paleoseismology, and surficial processes) that will be co-mentored by faculty from the U.S. and our partner universities in Guatemala. Samples will be sent for geochemical, petrographic, geochronological, and other analyses when we return from the field. Then at the end of May of the same year, U.S. and Guatemalan students and mentors will reconvene for two weeks of collaborative lab work and data analyses at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) and via a virtual online platform. This will culminate in students preparing abstracts and presenting their research at the Guatemala GeoHazards Poster Symposium which will be held simultaneously in person on the UMKC campus and online via the Zoom platform.

Key Elements

The Guatemala Geohazards IRES will recruit sophomore and junior undergraduate students who are majoring in a geoscience field. All applicants are encouraged to apply and will be considered for the program. We encourage women, veterans, first-generation college, and Hispanic/Latinx students to apply.

Throughout this program, we will emphasize three key goals: 1) developing a learning environment that promotes undergraduate students’ taking ownership of their own research, 2) promoting an inclusive and diverse educational culture, and, 3) modeling international cooperation and training in a globalized workforce.

GO TO THE APPLICATION PAGE TO APPLY – DEADLINE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2024.