SuperCroc - Discover the world's largest crocodile, Sarcosuchus, found by paleontologist Paul Sereno

Judy's Journal

Hi, my name is Judy. I'm 17 years old and I'm in my junior year at Lake View high school. I became a Junior Paleontologist through Project Exploration over the summer of 2001.

As a J.P. I would like to tell you about how my outlook on science has changed since I've been in this program. When we are young we tend to dream of what we want to become in the future. We tend to say that we love certain things and always will. Then comes a little bit of change. I can very much relate to this situation. My situation was liking and disliking science. When I was in grammar school, especially in the 7th grade, I already knew what I wanted to do career wise. I wanted to major in either Archaeology, Paleontology, or Anthropology and I still do. Unfortunately my school didn't have such classes. The classes that were provided to me were very boring. There was nothing new. When you dream of becoming something at a young age and later find out that you can't achieve that dream you give up. Well that's basically what I did and this is when I started to dislike science.

Now I'm in high school, where we have somewhat a variety of science classes to study from. High school science classes I really enjoyed taking were Biology and Environmental Science, but to me that wasn't enough. This is when I started to say to myself, "Science is boring," until, one day, my teacher Mrs. M. Kuhl (who taught at Lake View High School) stood in front of my Environmental Science class and explained what Project Exploration was all about. As soon as I heard her say that the program dealt with paleontology, I jumped at the chance to get an application. A friend and I applied and got interviewed by Gabrielle Lyon. After I waited a couple of days I found out that I, along with other kids from schools all over the city of Chicago was accepted into the program. By mid-July, we started to attend classes involving paleontology, anatomy and geology at the University of Chicago.

Our last day of training was August 3, 2001. On August 5, 2001, we were preparing for our weeklong trip to Newcastle, Wyoming where we stayed at the Zerbst's ranch. While we were out there I began to love science. I began to realize that this is what I want, that this was and is my dream. I made the best out of my stay in Wyoming - which lasted until the 12th day of August. I also learned and realized that the reason I said science was boring was because in elementary school, they would only talk about environmental science and I wasn't interested in that.

Now I know that interesting science classes are provided through college and now, I can truly say, I can't wait until then. I only have one more year to go until I graduate out of Lake View High School. P.S. I would like to say thanks to my Environmental teacher, Mrs. Kuhl. Thank you for your help, support and for believing in me. I would also like to thank my family and my close, close, friend Giffen for being supportive and always hearing me out.

Finally, I would like to end this piece of writing with a journal entry involving the day of the Scientific Announcement. I, along with ten other kids from schools all around the city of Chicago, were given the chance to participate in Paul Sereno's Scientific Public Announcement of Sarcosuchus in Washington D.C. - Hope you enjoy it!

October 25, 2001