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25–28 OCTOBER • MONTRÉAL, QUÉBEC, CANADA
On To the Future Offers Friendships, Mentorship,

and an Entry into Future Opportunities

The On To the Future (OTF) program supports students from Participant Comments
diverse backgrounds to attend their first GSA Annual Meeting,
this year in Montréal, Québec, Canada, 25–28 October. Each year My favorite part about OTF was that I loved having a mentor.
awardees are paired with a mentor, have opportunities to interact Being able to ask all the questions and concerns about graduate
with GSA leadership, learn about future opportunities, attend a school and future opportunities was amazing. Learning the next
professional development workshop, and experience the meeting steps that I am supposed to take to be better prepared for my
with a cohort of first-time attendees. career in geosciences helps me a lot. —Santa Lucía Pérez Cortés
More than 647 students have gone through the program, includ-
ing 47% who are from underrepresented minority groups, 74% are I feel like OTF captures this quite well, the program gathered
the first in their families to attend higher education, 37% are non- people in similar situations who are also succeeding in their
traditional students, and 9% are veterans. Post-program surveys fields, which gave me a great sense of community. Ultimately,
demonstrate the value of OTF for students, which offers friend- I feel like I gained more confidence in myself and my ability to
ships, mentorship, and knowledge of opportunities that will sup- conduct meaningful research through the unity and community
port their academic and career pathways. this program provides. —Tiffani Cáñez
Increasing diversity and inclusivity is critical to innovation,
scientific advancement, and solving tomorrow’s geoscience chal- While this was not my first conference that I’ve attended, I felt the
lenges. Don’t miss an opportunity to become an OTF student or tools, workshops, mentoring, and opportunities discussed through
mentor. Students should apply by 29 May to attend the 2020 GSA the OTF program were a huge benefit. —Samsideen Ajala
Annual Meeting. GSA welcomes applications from low-income,
underrepresented, first-generation, non-traditional, women, veter-
ans, LGBTQ+, students with disabilities, and others. https://www.geosociety.org/OTF

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