May 2006 ISSUE
Marc Boulet
STUDENT COLUMNS
earth ring symbolizes
treasures and trust
BY MARC BOULET
University of Calgary
Student Contributor (Geosciences)
“One ring to rule them all…”
— J. R. R. Tolkien
Columnist’s Note: Although this appears under my byline, I must thank Sarah Cutten, one of the recent graduates who attended the ceremony described. She submitted the article through me.
WORKSHOPPERS
Engineering and geoscience students take part in the ethics workshop, March 18.
The actual ring ceremonies — iron for engineer, earth for geoscience — are
similar but separate activities.
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The APEGGA Geoscience Earth Ring ceremony, March 18, attracted just fewer than 80 participants, making it one of the largest since the inception of this tradition in 1975. The ceremony celebrates the integrity of the geology and geophysics professions.
The day started with the APEGGA Ethics Workshop, which was attended by both geoscience and engineering students. Although the geoscience ring ceremony is separate from engineering’s, it contains many of the same passages, written by Rudyard Kipling, and has both a spoken ritual, which stresses the integrity of the professions, and an oath spoken in unison.
Rings are worn on the writing hand; they are made of silver or gold to represent the treasures from the earth we seek. They are engraved with two crossed rock hammers and a seismic wavelet, signifying both the immediate and remote searching of knowledge.
The rings’ circular shape symbolizes the continuous interplay of ideas and material realities. The Earth Ring is a representation of values that lie at the core of ourselves, and of the trust placed in us by society.
We all greatly appreciated all of the hard work put in by the ring stewards, including Dr. Charles Henderson, P.Geol., Dr. Miyaki Hayashi and especially Dr. Edward Krebes, P.Geoph., who volunteered a lot of time to make this event a success. Our student speaker, Dawn Heffernan, gave us a motivational overview of all of the great times we have shared over the past few years together — including the recent upset of the geology soccer team by the geophysicists.
After the ring presentation, we listened to Dr. Rob Vestrum, P.Geoph., of Thrust Belt Imaging, who told us what he feels it means to be a professional, and how he has found success in his career.
This special day provided us with an opportunity to reflect on our past years at the University of Calgary, as well as what lies ahead for us as graduates and professionals in the geoscience community.