Andy Tiedeman (BS Geology, 2006)

I'm currently working with a company named UNAVCO INC, as a strainmeter field engineer, based out of Boulder, CO. I've not yet been to the head office, but there have been plenty of places that they have had me go. Like Palm Desert, California all the way up (and between) to Vancouver Island in Canada, as well as Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. I have been working for UNAVCO since about two days after my lovely graduation from Central Washington in 2006. My job has me on the open road I'd say close to 75% of the time - either flying to new locations or driving thousands of miles throughout the year.

I work with our drilling operations setting up drill locations and site prep, along with getting all the info I can manage to retrieve to help our install crew or the drillers themselves. We drill holes that are on average 800' deep and during this course I try my best to identify the geology we drill through from drill cuttings coming up out of the hole that are crushed up to approximately the size of bb's. So lots of mineral identification and the like. We then install strain meters, seismometers, and pore pressure sensors down hole and hook up electronics and a vast communications system to send information from equipment back to Boulder, Co. Pretty much glorified construction work while getting a little dirty from time to time.

All the people I work with are great and we basically are one big happy family. I also get to work with my best friend Steve Alm (CWU '06) from time to time, which is pretty great. Can't stop the Steve and Andy Show! I thought that getting Steve on with the company would increase our time to hang out, but in actuality, we hang out less.

CWU Geology was great in getting me the job. While on the job, I'm able to make a pretty darn good guess at what's going on down hole. I'm confident in what I do. I remember all of the school work that was pushed at us - which seemed impossible to finish. We did - and just juggled everything to get the job done as efficiently as possible. That in a nut shell is what the geology program did for me - and more of course!

Where do I live? Well...I live in hotels and motels mostly and like to kid that I am homeless - which is actually not to far from the truth! When I am home I stay with my lovely fiance, Erin Lydon just outside Bellevue, WA in a cabana at her grandmother's home. Quite a luxury I tell you, and I also have the nickname Cabana Boy. Steve likes to joke that I hang out by the pool in a Speedo, cleaning the pool in my free time.

Depending on the season, I like skiing in the winter and wakeboarding in the summer - or just going on romantic walks on the beach with Erin. My life is good and I'm always up to something different. I just went to Mexico this last New Year's Eve. Good times!

I sometimes reminisce on old times at Central and all the fun I had and great people I met along the way - including the great professors I had who made me want to choose the life I now lead. All in all, I am very thankful for what CWU Geology helped me to become - grown up, sophisticated, and of course mature. No, but really, a great period of time in my life!