Nathan Cheshier (BS Geology, 2004)

I started two years ago with a small geotechnical consulting company (about 7 employees) called PacRim Geotechnical. My job title is Staff Geologist. Since I started, I've enjoyed a variety of tasks including mainly construction monitoring (inspecting soil compaction and densities of native soil, erosion control, other engineering aspects of soil, arguing with contractors, etc.), slope stability assessments and advising repairs of damaged slopes, a variety of instrumentation projects, environmental assessments, laboratory analysis of soil, and sample collection by drilling and excavating test pits, and definitely honing my report writing skills. I definitely enjoy my job. I'm constantly doing and learning new things and get to practice what I have learned in school. At times it can be boring and arguing with contractors gets old, but overall I'm happy with what I am doing.

I can thank Lisa Ely and anyone else related to the Majors-Plus e-mail list for informing me of this job opening. My fellow CWU geology alumnist and friend Aaron Roden sent Lisa a posting of the opening which she kindly passed on through her mailing list. Aaron recommended me for the job and the rest is history. I find it very cool that even after I had graduated I was still able to maintain contact with professors from the Geology department and I have definately benefited from it. To continue my story, Aaron went on to work with the City of Bellevue, as I'm sure he'll tell you, and PacRim was bought by a larger company (about 100 employees) based in Portland called GeoDesign Inc. in Feb. '07. GeoDesign kept all of the former PacRim employees so the job feels quite the same.

I feel like the Geology major prepared me well for describing soil as well as knowledge of depositional processes (Quaternary, Stratigraphy and Geomorphology), lab procedures (grain size analysis for stratigraphy, everyone knows we got plenty of practice writing (thanks Marie), and the math physics and chemistry requirements were all helpful too (although not my favorite at the time) and believe it or not I've actually used a Brunton compass on some of my projects.

As far as my personal life, I am also happy with how it is going. After college, I got to do some traveling. I was a ski bum at Sun Valley, ID for one winter. After the season was over, I made a geology tour of the Southwest. I went to Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks - and even visited Bishop, CA. I couldn't make it to the White Mountain Research Station because of snow, but I did go to Hot Creek, which felt great after a long stretch of road with no shower. After that, I spent almost an entire summer touring Europe, paid for partly by washing dishes (and living) in a restaurant in Vienna, Austria. I also met my lovely girlfriend Marion there and have been dating her for three years now, but no we are not married and I do not have kids yet. Now I live in downtown Seattle with Marion and am walking distance from plenty of shops, restaurants, the market and plenty of bars and clubs.

Overall, I am really happy that I chose to be a Geology major at Central. I can't say enough good things about the faculty and programs. I probably wouldn't have graduated when I did if Nick hadn't been such a helpful advisor and helped me pick the right classes at the right times. I may not have joined the major at all if I hadn't enjoyed his Geology of National Parks class so damn much!