Geoscience Currents #45 discusses a newly developed ‘pathway model’ (Houlton, 2010) which examines the reasons students pursue the geosciences as a college major. Furthermore, the pathway model has strong implications for focusing recruitment and retention efforts in academia and industry. This is the first of four Geoscience Currents in the “Geoscience Academic Provenance” series. Read more in Geoscience Currents #45.