“I was good at it,” he says. As a sophomore, Duchette took his first geology course with Professor Mike Retelle. After a second geology course, with Professor Dyk Eusden, “I was pretty much hooked. They’re both good professors and good people to work with.”

Of course, geology is history. A summer 2005 community-based research grant from the Bates College Harward Center for Community Partnerships allowed Duchette to work for the Maine Geological Survey investigating sediment deposits from the last ice age in the nearby Buckfield Quadrangle. Duchette’s senior thesis focuses on a period about 12,000 years ago in Androscoggin County’s Martin Stream River Valley, where he’s researching the glacial movements and deposits. [More...]