Melinda Menke Shimizu (BS Geology, 2006)

I graduated from CWU in June 2006 and got married the very next weekend. That August Erik and I moved down to Tempe, Arizona so that I could pursue a MS in Geology at Arizona State University. I came to ASU with the intention to study Mars and the hope to one day work for NASA. In my first semester at ASU I did a project with data from the Mars rover Spirit and found out what a job for NASA fully entailed - and realized it wasn't for me. I wound up doing a thesis in tectonic geomorphology instead, looking at hanging valley formation in the Swiss Alps, and completed my MS in August 2008. (Please note, that is within 2 calendar years of beginning the degree, which was something of a personal goal) :)

While completing my MS I also took classes and earned a GIS Certificate that involved an internship with the city of Maricopa, AZ. This experience indirectly brought me to my current pursuit - a PhD in Geography (I really like GIS). After working as a field geologist for about a month, I decided that I wanted to go back to teaching and be a professor - thus the PhD. I anticipate my focus to be Spatial Decision Support Tools, but it's still a little early to say for sure. I hope to graduate by Spring 2013.

Personally, Erik and I have been married two and a half years now, and have been home owners for a year and a half. We have two cats, two cars, and no kids. I enjoy scrapbooking, hiking, reading, and blogging in my spare time and am actually starting to love living in Arizona.