In 2020, A,y Hagen took one semester in the School of Earth Sciences as part of her junior year in Smith College in Massachusetts, USA
How was your time in UCD and in the School of Earth Sciences?
I liked Dublin and I liked the School of Earth Sciences especially. Everyone was super nice and welcoming. And I liked my classes, and my project with Prof Paddy Orr. So I'd say it was a good time. I was sad I had to leave early.
What was your project about?
We were working on some trace fossils in County Wexford. We went down there and collected some, and I did some scanning electron microscopy on them, and we were supposed to do some more geochemical stuff but never got to, because a pandemic shut everything down, but it was still fun like getting started.
Did you get a chance to go anywhere else in Ireland?
Apart from Wexford, I went to Galway for a weekend, and to Belfast. I also played lacrosse and the team travelled to Galway and to Belfast again. So I got around a little bit!
What classes did you take?
There was one really specific palaeontology class that I took, and that offered a little more depth than the ones at my school, so it was nice to be able to specialize more and the freedom to take that research class with Paddy was really nice too. And then there was an Ireland-specific geology one. We were supposed to go on field trips we didn't really get to go because of the pandemic, but it was cool to learn like specifically about the geology in Ireland.
What are your current plans?
I'm starting a PhD in August at Virginia Tech, working on geochemistry and palaeontology.