21 concerned about how this would affect their future, they knew there was only one true decision. So Josh stayed home and scrambled to figure out his in state collegiate options. That was when it happened, a perfectly timed phone call from Dr. Jim Puckette offering Josh a substantial scholarship that would allow him to attend another excellent university debt free. This blessing allowed Josh and Callie time to plan their wedding and begin looking for a place to live. Josh and Callie were married a week before school started and moved into a house in Yukon, Oklahoma. This is when Josh began his wonderful and exciting journey at OSU. Although, it did change Josh’s future, it was a positive change, and it was instrumental in molding him into a good man and more importantly a strong and loving husband and father. Josh believes God’s hand was on him the entire time as he gave up a great opportunity in Cornell for his new family which led to an unbelievable opportunity at OSU. Josh is fully confident that no other institution in the country would have given him more opportunities, professional training, and academic prestige than Oklahoma State University. The support that the Boone Pickens School of Geology faculty, staff, and students gave to Josh was instrumental in his professional and academic success. He can’t stress enough how the geology faculty are a direct cause for his accomplishments as they have continually pushed and encouraged Josh to be the best student and professional that he can be. Josh is most impressed however, that the BPSoG faculty haven’t gotten tired of him constantly harassing and pestering them with his questions and ideas. He believes that this is likely the biggest miracle of his entire journey. Josh was introduced to research by Dr. Halihan and was given an opportunity to conduct groundwater investigations over the OSU Polo Club’s water well that was contaminated by an underlying salt strata that had up‐coned due to over pumping. Later, Josh began his honor’s thesis with Dr. Pashin which is titled “Assessing the Hydrocarbon Potential of the Green River Formation Shales Utilizing Petrological Analysis.” Josh has also been heavily involved in OSU’s AAPG student chapter, first he was vice president for a year and is now the current president. Since Josh has been in a leadership position, AAPG’s average meeting attendance has increased from 15 people per meeting to 48 people per meeting. AAPG has hosted dozens of industry professionals and several great networking events including the first ever OSU AAPG Prospect Presentation which had a record AAPG student chapter attendance of 105 people. Most importantly, Josh and the rest of the AAPG leadership have raised over $10,000 for the student chapter giving them the ability to continue their mission for several years to come. Throughout all of this, Josh has maintained a total GPA of 3.60 and a geology GPA of 3.90 and will graduate with a BS with honors this spring after just three short years, while also taking additional petroleum engineering and geography classes. Over the years, Josh has received several prominent scholarships and awards including the Purdie Research Scholarship, which is the largest undergraduate research scholarship offered by OSU. Josh is now extremely excited to continue his education at OSU, where he will begin his master’s degree in the fall. He will work under Dr. Ismail, and will study multi‐component seismic data in order to determine subsurface lithology and to conduct azimuthal anisotropy analysis to interpret fracture magnitude and orientation. In the meantime, Josh will finish his final semester and then work for ConocoPhillips this summer as a geoscience intern. Josh and Callie were finally able to move to Stillwater last year after Josh’s nearly 2 years of commuting 3 hours a day for school and work. Most importantly, they are now the loving parents of not just one daughter but two! Josh, Callie, Carolina, and Channing are now Pokes for life and are thrilled for the opportunities at OSU to come! They can state confidently that there is no place they would rather be!
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