At GSA Connects 2025, you have the opportunity to go beyond attending sessions—earn a Certification that recognizes your focused engagement with the science shaping our future. These curated certification tracks combine sessions, short courses, field trips, and community activities into a structured learning pathway, giving you a tangible credential to showcase on your résumé, LinkedIn, or with employers. Designed for students, early-career professionals, and seasoned geoscientists alike, certifications provide recognition for your commitment to lifelong learning and deeper participation in the GSA meeting experience.

How to get started: On-site at Connects 2025, visit Registration, the Opportunities Booth at GSA Headquarters, or one of the sponsoring Divisions—the GSA Energy Geology Division, GSA International Committee, or Planetary Geology Division.

GSA’s certifications recognize participants who engage deeply with scientific content around a specific theme during GSA Connects 2025. These certifications are a fresh, new effort to provide structured learning recognition that can support career growth, individual recognition, and continuing education goals.

Each certification includes:

• A curated pathway of topical sessions, short courses, posters, field trips, and other learning activities tied to the meeting theme.
• A total of 16 required hours: eight (8) from Core Activities and eight (8) from Elective Activities.
• A self-report and assessment form, complemented by a review process to verify completion.

Certifications at GSA Connects 2025 give you the opportunity to improve your meeting experience, further advance your professional development, and fully engage with this year’s meeting themes.

Key objectives include:

• Enhancing participant engagement: The certification pathways are designed to help you interact more intentionally with the sessions, courses, and division activities tied to the meeting’s core themes.
• Providing structured recognition: Certifications offer a tangible acknowledgment of focused learning—especially valuable for students and early-career professionals.
• Encouraging reflection and application: By requiring a short written reflection and assessment, the process promotes synthesis of information and connection to broader professional or research goals.
• Supporting lifelong learning: The credentials signal to both internal and external audiences (e.g., employers, academic committees) that you have been actively engaging with evolving scientific conversations.
• Interacting with division and committee leadership: Take advantage of the expertise offered by GSA’s Scientific Divisions and Committees in order to advance your professional knowledge and gain further networking opportunities.

Ultimately, the certifications are intended to support you in getting more out of your meeting experience—academically, professionally, and personally.

Three certifications will be offered:

1. 2025 Energy and Resource Innovations in the 21st Century (sponsored by the GSA Energy Geology Division)
2. 2025 Geology without Borders (sponsored by the GSA International Committee)
3. 2025 From Earth to the Cosmos: Geoscience Beyond Our Planet (sponsored by the GSA Planetary Geology Division)

Any registered GSA Connects 2025 attendee can participate. Certifications are designed for:

• Early career professionals
• Students
• Researchers and practitioners
• Anyone interested in a structured and thematic learning experience
• You!

Participants who complete all requirements will receive:

• A digital badge issued by GSA that can be shared on LinkedIn, in resumes, or with prospective employers
• A downloadable PDF certificate recognizing the completion of your certification track

Yes! You’ll receive a digital badge that you can add to your LinkedIn profile or share elsewhere to showcase your achievement. GSA may highlight certification earners or fun statistics about the tracks through social media, newsletters, or web highlights.

Yes! Participants engaged in a certification track may pick up a ribbon to add to their conference badge that identifies their participation. Ribbons will be available at the Registration desk, the Opportunities Booth (within the GSA Headquarters in the Exhibit Hall), and at the sponsoring Scientific Divisions’ tables in the Exhibit Hall (also within the GSA Headquarters space).

1. Attend the required number of Core and Elective activities within your chosen track.
2. Record your participation in Eligible Activities using the digital self-reporting form provided through GSA’s credentialing management system.
3. Within the self-reporting form, complete a required assessment to demonstrate your retention, understanding, and ability to evaluate the theme-related content.

If you have additional questions, please contact excel@geosociety.org.

1. After you arrive at Connects, use a special link to enroll and receive guidance on pursuing your certification. Access begins at the start of the meeting through GSA’s credentialing platform. You’ll be able to locate the enrollment link through:

• The official GSA Connects meeting app for attendees
• QR codes posted at Meeting Registration and in the Exhibit Hall:
  • GSA Opportunities Desk
  • GSA International Booth
  • GSA Energy Geology Table
  • GSA Planetary Geology Table

2. Participate in eligible activities

Attend sessions, give a talk or poster presentation, join field trips or short courses, visit the exhibit hall, and engage with fellow attendees. Your certification materials will guide you in identifying which activities count and how to track them.

3. Submit for the certification after the meeting

After you enroll, you’ll receive access to a self-reporting form to share your completed activities and submit a reflection-based assessment after the meeting ends. This is where you’ll demonstrate what you learned and how it connects to the certification theme. Assessments are due by Friday, October 31, 2025 and are submitted through GSA’s credentialing platform.

Core activities are required—every certification track includes a small number of must-do activity types tailored to the meeting theme. These ensure all participants engage directly with cornerstone content, such as the relevant topical sessions.

Elective activities offer flexibility and choice. Participants can select from a wide range of options— these could include presenting a talk or poster, joining a field trip or short course, or engaging with GSA community events. These activities each carry an assigned number of engagement hours.

Participants accumulate hours based on the actual duration of each qualifying activity. For example, attending two 4-hour topical sessions results in 8 hours toward the credential.

To earn a certification, participants must:

• Complete 8 hours from any combination of eligible core activities they attend, and
• Complete 8 hours from any combination of elective activities

This structure allows you to tailor your meeting experience to your interests while ensuring meaningful engagement with the certification theme.

The assessment is a short, post-meeting activity designed to help you reflect on what you learned and demonstrate your engagement with the meeting theme.

You’ll answer 8–10 short prompts across three tiers of learning:

• Retention: Confirm you attended sessions and absorbed key observations (e.g., “What was one main takeaway from each of the two sessions you attended?”)
• Understanding: Synthesize or explain important ideas in your own words (e.g., “How did one session change the way you think about planetary science?”)
• Analysis & Evaluation: Apply your knowledge critically or compare perspectives across multiple activities (e.g., “Compare two talks that offered different views on our solar system’s evolution.”)

Questions will be tailored to the theme, not to specific sessions, so you won’t be penalized for the activities you didn’t attend. Instead, you’ll have a chance to reflect on what you did engage with and how it deepened your understanding.

You won’t need to memorize facts or pass a traditional test. The goal is to recognize the time and thought you invested in attending sessions, presenting, networking, or contributing to the scientific community through the theme.

Assessments are due by Friday, October 31, 2025 and can be submitted through GSA’s credentialing management system after the meeting.

GSA Connects attendees can already earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs) and Professional Development Hours (PDHs) based on meeting attendance and participation:

GSA Connects CEU/PDH Equivalents

CEUs and PDHs by Activity Type

1-day

0.8 CEUs

8 PDHs

2 days

1.6 CEUs

16 PDHs

3 days

2.4 CEUs

24 PDHs

4 days

3.2 CEUs

32 PDHs

Field Trip (1 day)

0.8 CEUs

8 PDHs

Short Course (1 day)

0.8 CEUs

8 PDHs

Participants do not receive additional CEUs for completing a certification beyond the credits already earned by attending the meeting and its supported activities. Certifications do track the hours you participate in eligible activities associated with the meeting themes, to verify eligibility for the certification and recognize structured engagement with the meeting content.

These curated certification tracks enhance the GSA Connects experience in alignment with the meeting themes and have a tailored scope, format, and purpose. They represent a significant step in GSA’s efforts to build support and capacity for certifications that serve professionals of all career stages within the geoscience community.

The certifications are not an alternate or substitute for a Professional Geologist certification or for professional licensure.

Participants complete a self-report form and assessment, and submit evidence of their attendance and engagement. GSA and the supporting Scientific Division or Committee serving as the vetting body review the credential structure, and GSA staff review submitted materials to ensure accuracy and alignment with certification requirements.

There is no additional cost to participate in a certification at GSA Connects 2025. However, participants must be registered for the meeting and any associated elective activities they choose to use in order to complete the certification requirements (e.g., short courses, field trips).

Each certification track was co-developed by GSA staff and an associated Scientific Division or Committee serving as the vetting body. Vetting bodies ensure the scientific rigor, alignment with the meeting theme, and quality of activities. GSA’s Professional Development Committee approved the assessment framework.

From Earth to the Cosmos: Geoscience Beyond Our Planet

GSA Planetary Division

Geology without Borders

GSA International Committee

Energy and Resource Innovations in the 21st Century

GSA Energy Geology Division

Based on feedback from participants, internal stakeholders, and external partners, GSA will determine how to scale or adapt the program for future meetings and continuing education initiatives.

Yes. Attendees are encouraged to submit their assessments as soon as possible following the meeting. To be eligible for certification, assessments must be received by midnight (MT) on Friday, October 31, 2025.

Only participants who complete all requirements — including the minimum eligible activities and final assessment — will receive a certification. However, through the meeting itself, you will still earn CEUs or PDHs for any individual activities you participated in during the meeting, according to the established credit breakdown.

Before and after the meeting please submit additional questions to excel@geosociety.org and visit for additional information: https://connects.geosociety.org/program/certification.

During the meeting you can visit the GSA Opportunities booth, the relevant Division tables, or the International booth (all in the Exhibit Hall), and look for GSA team members wearing staff ribbons for certification support.

Absolutely! GSA welcomes member and attendee feedback to shape future programming. Stop by the GSA Opportunities booth in the Exhibit Hall or the GeoCareers Corner, or email your ideas to excel@geosociety.org.