The year has been a wonderful journey for me, my teammates, and our student members of the SPE University of Port Harcourt Student Chapter. The chapter organized several programs this past year for the benefit of the students. The events held can be grouped under the following headings: membership drive, membership inclusion, industry exposure, community service–Energy4me, technical exposure, and leadership programs.
Membership Drive. In the past year, the University of Port Harcourt chapter recorded a significant increase in new member registration and retention as we moved from a negative growth of −22% to 85% and the retention went up from 40% to 70%. This is as a result of increased membership benefits such as free tutorials, technical material distribution, and gift prizes, among others, which attracted both new and existing members to get more involved in SPE activities.
Membership Inclusion. Events in this past year made it possible for every student member to feel a positive impact of SPE. From the school’s new fresher intakes to final year students, everyone had a taste of the bigger SPE in one beneficial way or another. This was more so for students in their fourth year in school who were given ample exposures to help facilitate their hiring for student industrial training (internship).
Industry Exposure. This was the mainstay of the chapter administration’s policy. It was aimed at bringing the industry as close as possible to the students and was achieved by organizing technical visits to companies like Baker Hughes, Bonitas Energy, Nestoil, Welltec, DSV Pipetronix, and Schlumberger. We were also able to organize 15 technical lectures and 10 Ambassadorial Lecture Programs. The chapter also ensured that adequate transportation was provided for student members to attend events organized by the resident SPE Section, such as the section’s Monthly Technical Meetings. Moreover, we are always keen to participate in student programs organized at the Nigerian council level; for example, we took part in the Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition and the Students Technical Symposium and Exhibition, where we won the Best Nigerian Chapter Award and Energy Challenge Contest, respectively.
Community Service. As our way of giving back to the community, and the school at large, we organized seven community service activities around the school to show that #SPECares. These activities ranged from beautification of school walls, environmental sanitation, installation of waste bins, various health awareness campaigns, and a visit to an orphanage. As part of Energy4Me, we were able to reach out to 20 schools, and engaged over a thousand students in a series of expository events into the energy sector, engineering, and STEM education in general.
Technical Exposure. One of the biggest standpoints of our chapter is its Technical Interest Group. During the course of the year, technical meetings were held every Thursday during the school’s session to expand the technical horizon of student members. Outside our weekly technical meetings, the chapter also organized lecture series such as the Chi Ikoku Day, which is done in honor of our late Professor Chi Ikoku.
Leadership Programs. For any organization to thrive, the leaders must lead with a result-oriented mindset in order to achieve set targets while upholding the vision of the organization. In light of the above, we organized three leadership summits for current leaders and future leaders to ensure the smooth run of the chapter in the coming years.
Highlight Events of the Year
The Annual Energy Symposium and Exhibition and the Women in Energy Symposium were the two highlight events held by the chapter this year.
Women in Energy Symposium. This technical event gave our female members the opportunity to interact with many successful women in the oil and gas industry who shared their experiences, challenges, and insight on how they overcame these challenges. The symposium also held technical presentations on trending technologies, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, and the role female engineers can play in the evolution of the oil and gas industry. This program brought together 100 female student members and 50 female professionals from the industry.
Annual Energy Symposium and Exhibition (AESE). The first edition of AESE launched this year and was by far our biggest technical event ever. Many companies were in attendance; there were around 20 technical paper presentations, 2 panel sessions, and many innovative project exhibitions by companies and students alike. Student members had the opportunity to showcase their ideas to companies as well as network their way into the oil and gas industry.
In conclusion, it has been a great year for us as a chapter. Like every other chapter, we had our own downtimes, and times of weakness, but these were overcome through hard work, consistent team work, collaboration, and good leadership. We look forward to another successful year next year.
Victor Anisi is the 2018/2019 president of SPE University of Port Harcourt Student Chapter. During his tenure, the chapter recorded diverse achievements and significant growth. He is a recent graduate of petroleum and gas engineering from the University of Port Harcourt seeking to make a positive impact in the society as well as the oil and gas industry.