Eric Schmidt

Greetings! I am Eric Schmidt of Rubicon, WI. Son of 3+ Generation dairy farmers, this has been my way of life up till just recently moving to Western Illinois University (WIU) of Macomb, IL. I have grown and learned not to just help my parents and follow my dreams, but I have also learned what true hard work means as an adult. The values of rural farm work and dedication that I have gained after those years are now helping me become the person I've always believed to be one day since I was 10: a Meteorologist. It might be crazy to think that a person with this lengthy family history of farming would ever get involved into the science field of Weather, but I too grew up on the knowledge on how good and bad weather impacts the way my parents operate the farm on a daily basis. Eventually, this idea of knowing and figuring out what the weather would do next, I began dreaming to become those same people on TV. Currently, I am a Junior at WIU have been a transfer student to this school since the Fall of 2024 majoring into Operational Meteorology and Minoring in History. I was previously a student at a small community college named the University of Wisconsin Washington County of West Bend, WI, which unfortunately closed down last Spring, where I completed my last semester there. Since I have already been there for two years, it was already part of my plan to transfer to another institution outside of my home state to go into Meteorology. With the luck of a relative who knew someone that was a current WIU student, I've got in contact with him, toured the school, applied right away, and my life changed. To this point, not only have I known so much knowledge and skill to what real meteorologists do, and have to know so much more, I also known that I'm doing something in life no one in my family and my entire family history has done before. When it comes to my minor study in History, I love to gain knowledge in history, especially American History. One may say that the fields of weather and history are like oil and water, but I say their wrong because they do have something in common, not a huge common connection, but enough if you look at them closely. Just has history can teach us lessons in the present, weather and especially forecasting the weather has influenced human history for thousands of years. Looking to American History, historians can look to Hurricane Katrina, and how devastating that was to New Orleans. If it were to be forecasted a little different, or it took another path, some 1800 people wouldn't have died, some $125 Billion of damage may not have happened, and the Bush Administration may not have been fully blamed to FEMA's failed response afterwards. My point is, we can't change history because we can't go back into the past, the same way as we can't control the weather in the past, present, and future. Yet, the only thing people can do is to handle any weather mother nature throws at us now and in the future. Since we can change the future, the way we predict and respond to any weather disaster in this country is in our hands and possibly will be looked back to in history. This reason is where I am working towards because I am the next generation of meteorologists, and I must work harder than past generations to predict and prepare the public for more extreme weather in this changing climate that is to come; eventually passing this knowledge and dedication to the next generation of meteorologists after me.