By Manuel Fuentes Espinoza Junior Geologist - Mining Plus Peru
I started working on my bachelor thesis in July 2018. The title when translated to English is “The Study of the Tectonic Evolution of the Huancayo Inter-Montane Basin During the Late Neogene and the Quaternary”.
Back in July 2018, I was a full-time employee at the Mining Plus Peru office, a last year geology student at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), and working on my thesis on the weekends and on late-evenings of weekdays when possible.
In Peru, most students write their manuscript and present it in class to the other students and professors as part of the thesis course subjects. If all the course subjects are approved (including the thesis work), the student receives their Bachelor´ Degree and can find employment just with that. This being said, to go that extra mile, it is desirable to defend your thesis before a tribunal to receive an Engineering Degree (which will allow the individual to sign documents as a member of the Peruvian Engineering Association).
Working at Mining Plus during this time was a blessing, as I was provided with flexibility during my studies and was luckily grated leave days when I had a deadline for presenting certain progress to my university advisor.
I obtained my Bachelor´ degree from PUCP on December 2018, with my thesis at roughly 80% completion, albeit with comments from my university advisor that needed to be addressed before it could be presented. It was no easy task, but I worked at it and continued improving the manuscript during the first half of 2019.
It was particularly challenging balancing full-time work with thesis work but finally the defense date was scheduled in August. In preparation I asked for 9 days off in order to finalize the final manuscript (edition work), prepared my presentation and of course defend my thesis on the 16th of August.
The dedication payed-off and my thesis was unanimously approved with the feedback “Well Done”. Now, the administrative procedure is currently taking place, and I will be receiving an email over the following weeks indicating that I can go and pick up my Engineer diploma!