ANDREA K. BUCHEIT

ME, MYSELF AND I: A HISTORY

I was born and raised in Lenexa, Kansas, which is a suburb of the beautiful city of fountains, Kansas City. My parents are still there and I miss them, but my family likes to travel so we see each other frequently. I have two older sisters who live here in Fort Worth (we're all within ten minutes of each other) - I consider myself lucky, even though they love to torment me. After all, I am still the baby! My sisters' marriages finally gave me the brothers I've been begging for my whole life - I couldn't have picked better ones myself. They attended college with my sisters and settled down soon after - now I'm just waiting for the pitter-patter of tiny feet!

Speaking of tiny feet, the Bucheit clan is quite an animal family (there have always been at least two animals running around my parents' house): right now we have 11 pets in our four homes! My cat, Gizmo (see photo), was abandoned on a golf course with her mother (who now lives with my parents). When my dad saved them, they were both horribly malnourished and Gizmo had a broken rib; however, I'm happy to say that they're both thriving these days.

I'm a sports fan (borderline fanatic) - I love both playing and watching, especially when it comes to K.C. sports. I'm also a movie freak, book lover, and traveler. Although I love my hometown, I wanted to experience a different culture when I went away to college. Boy did I find it in Fort Worth, Texas!!

THE COLLEGE LIFE

I loved my first four years at Texas Christian University so much, I decided to stay for two more!! Actually, I felt that the Geology Department had so much more to offer that I just couldn't leave. I received two undergraduate degrees from TCU in May of 1995 - a B.S. in Geology and a B.A. in Spanish - and graduated magna cum laude as a member of Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society.

I immediately enrolled as a graduate student in Geology at TCU, where I am currently taking courses, teaching freshman Geology labs, and working on my M.S. thesis. My research area is in the Slick Hills of southwest Oklahoma, a beautiful landscape of hilly carbonate terrain near Lawton and Fort Sill. My task is to characterize the Franconian (circa 500 MA) land surface, which consisted of a series of islands referred to as the Southern Oklahoma Archipelago in recent publications. I'm blessed to be working with the craziest of all Scotsmen, Dr. Nowell Donovan - he is a veritable genius in Carbonate Petrology and one of the foremost experts on the development of the Slick Hills. I'll be finished in August, at which time I'll be searching for a life again!

WHAT NEXT?

Now that my time at TCU is almost up, I've got to face the real world head-on. I'll graduate in August 1997 with a Master of Science in Geology, and hopefully stick around Fort Worth for a fantastic job! Ideally, I'll be teaching at some point in my future, although I'm leaning toward acquiring some industry experience first.

Wanna see my resume?