Marcus Ashton Awarded the 2023 Spirit of the Department Award

At the 2023 COTS Celebration of the Sciences on Thursday, May 4, Marcus Ashton was awarded the "Spirit of the Department" award. Department Co-Chair Anne Egger presented the award to him, saying,

The Geological Sciences Department is happy to recognize Marcus Ashton with (what we call) the Spirit of the Department Award.

Marcus arrived at CWU as a transfer student from Centralia College in the fall of 2021. He was pretty much told to go here by his geology instructor there (one of our graduate program alums), with whom he had taken a few classes and started getting involved in research. And we are very glad that she was so convincing, because Marcus was a positive force in the department as soon as he arrived. He was a curious and engaged student in his classes, especially those classes that took him into the field. He’s been a mentor to other students as they prepare for field classes, helping them understand what it will be like and reducing their apprehension. And he again jumped at the chance to do more research, getting in on the game at the beginning of Hannah Shamloo’s CHIVES lab – the Center for High-Temperature, Volcanic, and Experimental Studies (soon to be known as the lab where magma is made).

You might notice that I’m using the past tense to talk about Marcus, and that’s because he graduated in winter quarter and is now working his dream job, at least for now, doing restoration work for the Mid-Columbia Fisheries. Congratulations, Marcus – you truly represent the spirit of the Geology Department.