I am writing to enthusiastically support Emma Idol’s application for a GIA Graduate Gemologist (GG) On Campus Scholarship. I have known Ms. Idol since the Fall semester of 2014 and have been her instructor in two senior level geology courses, including Structural Geology, and notably, our six week capstone Geology Field Course in Italy. Perhaps more importantly, Ms. Idol has been conducting research with me and a colleague in a collaborative geologic hazards project entitled Determining the history of landslide activity using dendrochronology, highway 105 in Boone, NC. These experiences have afforded me a substantial amount of time to get to know Ms. Idol; I feel very well qualified to speak to a number of her qualities.
Academically, Ms. Idol falls within the top 10% of students in our program; with ~130 peers, this is no small feat. Ms. Idol is quite sharp and that has helped her, but what has served as her primary academic asset is her motivation; she is peerless when it comes to focus, dedication, and drive. During the six week field course in Italy, when in the
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Idol’s most striking characteristic however, is her unbelievable and seemingly endless interest and enthusiasm. Not once have I been witness to Ms. Idol in a negative or poor mood. During one particularly trying day during our field course, I had gotten us lost in the Italian back country, and stuck in a small remote town inhabited by people who spoke a dialect most unintelligible to me. The interior of the 25 year old 12 passenger Fiat van was hot, and packed to the gills. Just as I myself was on the verge of calling this 10 AM catastrophe the end of the day, I hear Ms. Idol in her characteristic southern cadence, from the very back seat announce “Dr. Casale, I am having a great time!”. Despite everything going on around her Ms. Idol was able to see, much better than myself and everyone else in the vehicle that we were in a beautiful Italian landscape, with a day of hiking in nature before