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Cyan Woodward

Cyan Woodward has been fascinated by geology her whole life. Volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis — “I was interested in learning the mechanisms behind them,” she said.

However, daunted by the math and science, she started as an English major at an Arizona university. After moving to Alaska with her family and transferring to ���۴�ý, she switched to geoscience. “I was like ‘I can actually do this, because it’s something I really, really love,’” she said. 

Woodward said she remembers being interested in rocks as a child.

“I used to go to Legoland a lot in California and they had these places in the Pirate Cove where you could get rocks,” she said. “I always begged my mom to let me get a bag of rocks and she was like ‘These aren’t even real.’ And I was like ‘I don’t care. I want a bag of rocks.’ I still have them.”

Naturally, Woodward got involved with the Geoscience Club at UAF. She's now the vice president.

“We recently did a bad movie night. We watched ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ and pointed out all the geological flaws in it,” she said.

Since Woodward was new to Alaska when she came to ���۴�ý, most of her friends were back in Arizona. 

“I didn’t know anyone, coming up here,” she recalled. “I lived off campus for a semester. Now I’m on campus because it’s a lot easier to be around for events, and I’ve definitely met a ton of people on campus.”

Woodward also enjoys the rock climbing wall at the Student Recreation Center.

“I feel like rock climbing and geology go hand in hand,” she joked.