SPE Creates Online Database for Section Scholarships

DeAnn Craig, Chairperson, SPE Energy Information Committee

Editor’s note: This is one in a series of articles by members of SPE’s Energy Information Committee. Send comments about this article to energyed@spe.org.

One of the goals of the SPE Energy Information Committee is to encourage our members to talk to young people about petroleum engineering as a great career decision. The natural follow-up questions from parents and students after they hear about the exciting and challenging job opportunities and the high starting salaries are, “Where do I go to college?” and “How much will it cost?” and “How do I find out about scholarships?” The SPE website provides links to petroleum engineering departments throughout the world where the interested party can find out about entrance requirements, courses required, and tuition and fees. Finding out about scholarships, however, has not been so easy.

To make it easier to find out about scholarship money offered by SPE sections for students pursuing a petroleum engineering or related degree, an online scholarship database has been launched as a part of SPE’s new www.energy4me.org website. For the first time, students can find information in one place about SPE section scholarships, including contact information and eligibility criteria. Previously, a student would need to check every section’s website to find scholarship information.

For 2005–06, SPE sections awarded almost USD 722,000 in scholarship funds. The scholarship funds distributed for 2006–07 are likely to be even higher. SPE International also provides some funds to sections for scholarships and reimburses sections for other expenses that help university students, such as books or travel to SPE conferences.

Sections raise scholarship funds through activities such as golf tournaments and fees for local technical meetings. For example, the Permian Basin Section in Midland, Texas, reported a record scholarship year in 2006–07, awarding USD 66,000 in scholarships to 33 students. The funds were raised through a conference and golf tournament.

Never have students needed scholarships more to meet the rising tuition fees. This is particularly true for students in the US. I recently asked educators at US universities with petroleum engineering programs about current tuition costs. The yearly tuition for an undergraduate ranged from about USD 7,000 at Texas A&M University for a Texas resident (nonresident was USD 15,200) to USD 23,200 at private Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio, to nearly USD 33,000 at Stanford University. Even with scholarship help, many students are graduating with USD 20,000 or more in debt. The good news for petroleum engineering graduates in the US this year is that they can expect starting salaries from USD 65,000 to USD 86,500, with many graduates receiving signing bonuses of USD 15,000, according to officials at Texas A&M, Colorado School of Mines, and Marietta College.

Students will want to know that the work will be rewarding in terms of job satisfaction as well. Do not forget to tell them that they will be making a difference by helping provide the energy the world needs, in addition to discussing the financial rewards.

If your section’s scholarship program is not listed in the database, please let us know by emailing me at energyed@energy4me.org.

And keep talking to young people about petroleum engineering as a great career decision!

JPT Needs Historic Photographs

SPE is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and JPT will publish a special issue in October commemorating the milestone. JPT is looking for historic photographs from SPE conferences, meetings, section activities, and other events to publish in that special edition. If you have a photo that you would like considered for publication, or have important information to share about SPE’s history, please contact JPT Editor John Donnelly at jdonnelly@spe.org or 713.779.9595 ext. 616 by 1 August.

During a recent visit to Caracas, 2007 SPE President Abdul-Jaleel Al-Khalifa toured the Energy Conversion Laboratory at the Universidad Simon Bolivar and met with SPE student chapter members from that university as well as from Universidad Central de Venezuela and Universidad de Oriente. Pictured here are Al-Khalifa, left, and Professor Frank Kenyery, right, describing the laboratory's equipment.