Jennifer Schuller knows firsthand the devastation weather can cause.

The Valparaiso University junior saw her great-grandparents' home in Plainfield, Ill., destroyed by a tornado in 1990 when she was 2 years old.

"I stood up in the lawn and said, 'Papa's house is gone,'" the 21-year-old said. "I grew up thinking those meteorologists should have known better. I decided to turn that anger into something positive."

Schuller is now a meteorology major and is leaving today with 17 other students on a storm-chasing trip across the Great Plains. Schuller and her fellow meteorology students will be blogging about their experiences during the 11-day trip. Readers can follow their travels at http://nwitimes.com/blogs/stormchasers.

Meteorology professor Bart Wolf has been taking students on the field course since 1994.

"We've gone to every nook and cranny of the Great Plains," from Billings, Mont., to near the Rio Grande Valley in Texas to central New Mexico to the Rockies and everywhere in between, Wolf said.

There is never a set itinerary for the trips, with students tracking weather patterns and going wherever they think they will see the most action.

Wolf said the two trips last year were the most active in terms of weather, with plenty of severe weather and tornadoes.

"The most rewarding part for me is when we can get a relatively active pattern, and we have students who have never had the opportunity to see these weather patterns develop learn it hands-on," Wolf said. "For most people who go into meteorology, it's the bad weather that gets them interested. This is 11 days where they get to do nothing but look for bad weather."

Schuller will be making her second storm-chasing trip with the university, having first attended the summer after her freshman year.

"We got to see a little tornado and got rammed by it," Schuller said of the last trip. "We got to see how it started, watch it on radar, see how it grew. You start with nothing and get to see the end result. The storm chase helps you to see your education 360 (degrees). Seeing it for yourself and being able to recognize it and see what it can do is a great."

This time, Schuller will serve as a team leader, sitting in the front of the van and helping the underclassmen by asking questions about weather patterns and indicators they are observing.

"To help the underclassmen try to get that is key," Schuller said. "If I can help bring their education 360 like the first trip did for me, I'll be happy. It also helps reinforce what you've learned by helping teach it to the underclassmen."

Evan Bentley, 19, is a sophomore from Columbus, Ohio, and will be on the trip and assisted by Schuller.

"Ever since I was a kid, I was always outside watching the weather with my dad," Bentley said. "My room was turned into a mural with cloud shapes on it. It's just always been a passion that's never gone away."

Bentley said he is looking forward to "seeing my first tornado and seeing real Plains weather at the heart of it."

Justin Leo, 22, graduated with a degree in meteorology and communications from VU on Sunday. The Tinley Park, Ill., native will be attending his first storm-chasing trip.

"I'm just looking forward to taking everything I've learned over these last four years and applying it," Leo said.

Leo, who hopes to one day be a broadcast meteorologist, sees meteorology as a way to help people.

"It's something that affects daily life more than anything else I can think of, and it isn't an exact science," Leo said. "There's a challenge to it."