The Path to Professional License: Isabellah von Trapp, LG

In the science and engineering industry, seeing a “PE”, “LG”, “PMP”, or other initials behind someone’s name shows that person went through years of work experience that culminated in a substantial test to confirm the right to practice their area of technical expertise. A professional license is a proof statement that communicates that the people charged with designing roads and buildings; solving water supply challenges; cleaning up contaminated soil and water; and successfully managing project quality are qualified and ethically accountable professionals. Many go through this licensing journey but few outside that group know what the process is really like.

We’re telling those stories here. Aspect’s professionals are writing a series of articles that capture the trials and successes of studying for and receiving these career-defining milestones.

Isabellah von Trapp, Licensed Geologist (LG)

Test taken: October 2021

Results given: November 2021

Isabellah at Mt. Rainier demonstrating how she felt when she received her LG exam results.

Where did you start with your test prep?

I got out some construction paper and my favorite markers and drew a big, beautiful geologic time scale and geologic diagrams (e.g., fault blocks, Bowen’s Reaction Series, etc.). I hung them on the wall adjacent to my desk so it would be a constant reminder to study. Helpful? Not really. But it was a nice and fun way to ease into reviewing what initially felt like a very daunting amount of material.

What were your study tactics?

Practice tests, reviewing the study guide, flipping through flash cards, desperately seeking ASBOG advice on Reddit (r/geologycareers for curious minds), etc.

Walk us through the Big Test Day…

I woke up around 8 am. The test didn’t begin until early afternoon, so I tried to sleep in as much as my body would let me. Despite the nerves and not feeling hungry at all, I forced myself to eat something. I opted for oatmeal, a clementine, and some coffee. I put on my favorite jeans (for style) and favorite flannel (for comfort). Perhaps unsurprisingly for a geology exam, the exam room, as I would later find out, was full of people in very similar outfits.

Having an intense fear of being late, I left Seattle around 9:30 am for a 1pm exam in Olympia. On the drive down I listed to all my favorite music. Upon arrival, my extra time – given the dramatically early arrival – was spent reviewing the study guide in my car. I don’t think I learned anything new at that point but it eased my mind to have one last look at things.

There was a lot of nervous energy in the exam room leading up to the test. I remember the first page of questions being fairly easy, which inspired initial confidence, but they seemingly got harder as the exam progressed. Afterwards, I genuinely felt pretty bad about the way it went. I drove home semi-deflated but happy to be done in the interim. Later that evening I met my friends at a cabin on a lake for the weekend. It was nice to get my mind off the test.

How did you feel when you got the results?

Honestly, I was shocked. One of my old college classmates took the exam at the same time. He called me one Thursday night (after I had just landed in New Orleans for a short, extended weekend vacation) to see how I did as he had just received his passing results. Anxious, I checked my email. Nothing! I refreshed my email approximately every 10 minutes for a few hours but didn’t hear anything that evening. At this point, I assumed I failed and would be a recipient of the “We regret to inform you” email the next day. Much to my delight, I got a congratulatory email and a digital copy of my newly minted license the next day. A sunny Friday in New Orleans was the perfect time and place to receive this news. You can bet I took myself out for a beer (or two) after that!

What was the best piece(s) of advice you got from others who’d done this before?

  • Life does in fact go on if you don’t pass the exam on the first try.

  • Even if you do pass, you will probably feel like you didn’t afterwards so there’s no sense in stressing during the approximate 45-day period it takes to get your results. Think “ignorance is bliss” purgatory.

What should a person gearing up to do this know about the mental, physical, and social challenges of test prep?

Depending on how you study/absorb material, you probably won’t have much of a life for a month or two leading up to the test. However, you probably will not set yourself up for success if your mental batteries are drained at the expense of your physical and social health. I think it’s critically important to give yourself a break. About 3 weeks before my exam, I skipped a weekend study session to go backpacking through the Enchantments with my friends. This was probably the best thing I could have done.  

Any parting advice for those getting ready to embark on this journey?

The LG exam is offered twice per year – once in March and again in October. If possible, try to take the exam in March so you can spend the rainy winter months inside studying instead of the coveted, sunny, August/September days. Also, have a treat on deck to enjoy immediately after the exam is finished. I did not anticipate how hungry I would be afterwards. Unfortunately, I did not heed either piece of my own advice in this instance, but that is okay. Hindsight is indeed 2020.

Women in STEM: Hear How STEM Women Succeed

If you want to hear a discussion that’s well worth your time, check out this engaging roundtable conversation about women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). During Women’s History Month and hosted by Seattle’s Pacific Science Center and moderated by Angela Jones – CEO of Washington STEM – the panel includes Fumbi Chima (Executive at BECU), Eset Alemu (City of Seattle Engineer), Deena Pierott (iUrban Teen and STEM+Arts Executive), and Isabellah von Trapp (Aspect Hydrogeologist).

The conversation discusses finding career paths you love, the excitement of STEM careers, and advice for girls and women in pursuing a career in STEM industries.

Spokane Health Building Taps into Groundwater for Carbon-Neutral Goals

It’s not every day you can celebrate the first step in an innovative, carbon-neutral $60 Million health campus. In Spokane, Washington, a group of regional partners – including Gonzaga University, University of Washington, and McKinstry – are collaborating to build a four-story, 80,000-square foot health sciences building in the heart of Spokane’s riverfront. This Regional Health Partnership is the first of its kind in several ways. The public-private collaboration is unique as all partners look to build a world-class health headquarters in the Inland Empire. It’s also special because it has its sights on achieving recent carbon-neutral targets set out by the state of Washington.

The campus is just breaking ground now, with target construction completion finishing in summer 2022. One of the keys to the carbon-neutral puzzle – essentially, no emissions from the campus – is an innovative heating and cooling system for the campus building. This system, which is being co-designed between Aspect and McKinstry, pumps groundwater from an aquifer beneath the property, runs the water through a mechanical device where heat energy in the water is used to heat or cool the building. This “Open-Loop Ground Source Heat Pump” system has been implemented elsewhere but is not done very often because the subsurface conditions have to be just right to both provide the energy and cost savings to make it viable.

Take a look at the celebratory video marking this milestone (see Aspect’s ‘congratulations’ at 19:25 of the video):

A Nod to the Mighty Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer

Aspect is the hydrogeologic lead on the ground-source heat pump piece of the project and, as a company founded by hydrogeologists, we’re excited to contribute to eliminating carbon-based fuels historically used to heat and cool buildings.

The Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie (SVRP) aquifer in the project region is known as a highly productive one, pumping out the right temperature and volume to make the overall heating/cooling vision for the campus come to life. The final piece of the puzzle came together through a detailed characterization of the site to support water rights permitting.

There’s plenty of more work to do on this exciting project in the months to come and we look forward to helping other clients meet innovative and forward-looking energy goals with hydrogeologic science..

Ground Source Heat Pump: Saving Energy Costs and Reducing Carbon Footprints

Our new COVID-19 world has changed every part of work life, including for Aspect. But work does continue on at the same time, as long as it can be done safely, at a distance from others, and consistent with the intent of the current Governor’s Order. Because of the environmental work that we do, Aspect is used to working under strict health and safety procedures. One snapshot of Aspect’s work relates to what our water supply team has been doing for the state’s Public Health Lab in Shoreline, Washington.

Helping to Build a New Public Health Testing Facility

In another year, this may have been just another water supply project – bread-and-butter work for our geologists/hydrogeologists. However, this year finds Aspect’s team working on one of our state’s and the nation’s most unique sites – a Public Health lab that is analyzing COVID-19 tests, among others.

This project was in progress before the COVID-19 news hit—to help design and install a network of ground source heat pump injection and extraction wells to sustainably heat and cool their expanded laboratory efficiently and with a low carbon footprint (another Governor Initiative).

Groundwater to Sustainably Heat and Cool Facility Operations

Why is a ground source heating/cooling method more sustainable? We can use the constant groundwater temperature of about 55 degrees as a way to heat and cool buildings through a mechanical device called a heat pump. The groundwater and heat pump use very little mechanical energy compared to the conventional alternative: a fuel-based boiler and an electrical or water-intensive chiller/air conditioner to heat and cool the laboratory.

The open-loop ground source heat pump system starts with the extraction of groundwater from wells designed and installed by Aspect. The groundwater is then pumped through the heat exchanger then injected back to the ground. No water is lost. The 55 degree ambient temperature of groundwater provides a heat source to heat the lab in the winter and a heat sink to cool the lab in the summer. This system replaces the conventional carbon-based heating and cooling system to reduce carbon footprint and save money in energy costs over a system’s lifespan.

Developing a High-Yield Well in the Middle of the City

The complexities of local Seattle geology can sometimes make high-yield well (i.e., 100+ gallons per minute) development a challenge locally, yet the project team has seen encouraging initial results. Aspect oversaw drilling of a 300-foot-deep boring and conducted a series of tests to assess potential well yields and thermal properties of the ground. After wrapping up well drilling and testing recently, our water supply team is analyzing the hydraulic and thermal modeling, with the goal to have heating design recommendations done by June and delivered to our partner, McKinstry, the mechanical engineering leader of the project team.

Water Supply Testing of Well at the State’s Public Health Lab in April 2020

Meet Bill Grimm and Isabellah von Trapp

Staff Scientist Bill Grimm and Staff Scientist Isabellah von Trapp recently joined Aspect -- Bill in our Bainbridge office and Isabellah in our Seattle office. Here are five questions we asked to get to know them better.

Bill Grimm, Staff Scientist

  1. Where are you from? If you’re not from the Pacific Northwest, what brought you here? 
    I’m from the suburbs of Chicago originally. I came to Seattle a little over a year after graduating from college to do a master’s program in applied geosciences at the University of Washington. My master’s program was a great fit for me, because it combined two of my passions: earth science, and giving back to the communities in which I live. Seattle, and the Pacific Northwest in general, are incredibly interesting geologically, and the program presented a great opportunity to study real earth science-related issues happening in our own backyards.
     
  2. What inspired you to pursue geology? What made you curious about it?
    I really fell in love with geology when I was on a family vacation to the Grand Canyon when I was about 10 years old. I had always loved maps and cross sections since I was a kid, and seeing the Grand Canyon in real life made me absolutely fascinated with the Earth and its natural processes.
     
  3. What do you like best about your area of expertise? What excites you and keeps you motivated? 
    My favorite part of geology is that it’s like a big puzzle. You start with what you know, and you try to fit the pieces together to make the problem make sense. Along the way, you discover new pieces of the puzzle that fit in to the whole, and the more you discover (generally), the clearer the bigger picture becomes.
     
  4. What do you like to do when you aren’t working? 
    I like to hang out with my wife, hike, play guitar, ski, and read. I’m also planning to start brewing my own beer sometime soon.
     
  5. Where in the world would you like to travel next? 
    I would love to do a trek from northern India through Nepal to the Mt. Everest base camp. I love knowing where I am in the world geologically and geographically and being able to picture myself on a map, and I think it would be awesome to walk from the flats in India across the plate boundary and all the way to the base of the highest mountain above sea level.

Isabellah von Trapp, Staff Scientist

Isabellah enjoying Death Valley geology.

  1. Where are you from? If you’re not from the Pacific Northwest, what brought you here? 
    I grew up in Salem, Oregon but I always knew I wanted to live in the Puget Sound-area. I attended college in Tacoma at PLU then set out for grad school in Missoula, Montana. But, after a couple years of cold-ish winters, I was ready to head back to my beloved, rainy PNW where I could easily access the mountains, ocean, and my family within a short arm’s reach. 
     
  2. What inspired you to pursue water resources? What made you curious about it?
    For most of my growing up years, I strongly believed I wanted to be a dentist…but after about 1 semester in college, I quickly realized that was not the life for me. After floundering around in some general education classes the following semester, I decided to take an introductory-level geoscience class and my mind was blown.

    Soon thereafter, I declared myself as a geoscience major. I took a wide array of geology classes but out of all of them, I loved hydrogeology and geochemistry the most.  After that, it only seemed natural to seek out a master’s thesis project where I could combine both of those things! Fortunately, I’ve been able to pursue a career that allows me to use those skills and develop new ones. 
     
  3. What do you like best about your area of expertise? What excites you and keeps you motivated? 
    Everybody needs water. Working in water resources is not only interesting but it allows me to solve real world problems that affect a lot of people. Any job that allows you to simultaneously do science and help people is a cool one in my book. 
     
  4. What do you like to do when you aren’t working? 
    Most of the time, I’m daydreaming about what I’m going to eat next. So, in my free time I enjoy perusing every item at Trader Joe’s, cooking, and baking. Aside from that – I  also love to camp, hike, swim, knit, try out new beers, and travel just about anywhere! 
     
  5. Where in the world would you like to travel next? 
    Iceland, Ireland, and Israel – apparently I have a thing for countries starting with the letter I.