Devin Miller (BS Geology, 1999)

I'm a line cook at Wing Central in Ellensburg. I realized that making food makes people happy, and if they don't have to make it, it makes their life easier. My father told me as a young boy, "one only needs 3 things in life; shelter, food, and clothing." Food is the second largest releaser of endorphins - the things that make people happy! If I can make people happy and their life is easier, I believe I am making a difference in this world every day.

I have been accepted into culinary school down in Scottsdale, Arizona, but can't make it for financial reasons. I am currently saving money to move down there and then start the financial aid process all over again.

People still call me Poot. Nick Zentner was the first person to call me Poot. I used to wear a hat that had 'Poot' on it. I might have been sleeping in class one day and he chucked a piece chalk at me and yelled "Poot wake up!" Then on his trip down to Death Valley, I wore the hat and it stuck. Funny thing about the name Poot. I went to Vegas for my mother's third wedding. My friend went with me. He called me Poot down there. My sister - who is older and likes to tease me - called me Poot. I said, "You can't call me Poot. For you to call me Poot you have to come to Ellensburg and spend some quality time with me and my friends." HeHe. I still have the hat.

My time in college was confusing. I was young and looking for answers about the planet and God. Why we are here? Who am I? I found most of the answers during my studies at Central. I discovered one of those questions while walking around central Oregon mapping rocks. I asked myself, "What is the purpose of this?" "We map rocks so people know where to find precious metals and gems, coal, oil, fossils (which are bad ass), where mud slides are likely to happen, early signs of volcanic eruptions, where earthquakes are likely to happen." Then I think more about this and I come to realize, you look at hills and these morons still put houses up there - they don't care if they can see the ocean. I believe most of the oil is already found. Not drilled, but found and tagged. Sure there is oil not found out there, but it is deep in ocean crust or deep in contiental crust.

All the volcanoes out there have seismographs on them, and sitting in a room collecting data is not for me. I thought about teaching middle school earth science, but dealing with children is frustrating. I basically came to realize that geologic work isn't gonna make an immediate impact on making peoples lives easier - or more pleasant to me.