Houston 2009 Annual Meeting
View the SLS photo gallery. Back to 2009 Annual Meeting articles. Student leaders rock the SEG Annual Meeting
Roxanne Cook, Web Content Lead, SEG
What do you get when you bring some of the world’s brightest geoscience students together at the 2009 SEG/Chevron Student Leadership Symposium (SLS) in Houston, USA? You get a glimpse of the future’s most influential leaders in the field of geophysics.
This 2009 SLS, in its third successful year, awarded travel grants to 50 students, representing 26 countries, studying the geosciences at all levels. The program agenda allowed students to showcase their leadership skills, while learning additional skills from some of the industry’s finest such as Nicholas McLean and Robert Ryan, both of Chevron.
The agenda included the presentation, Engaged Leadership, by author, trainer and motivational speaker, Clint Swindall, Leadership Consultant of Verbalocity. Swindall spoke to the students on becoming “engaged leaders” and the three levels of leadership.
Directional Leadership: To build a culture of employee engagement, focus on Directional Leadership by building a consensus for the vision of the organization.
Motivational Leadership: If you want employees who are truly engaged and eager to contribute, focus on Motivational Leadership by inspiring employees to pursue the vision.
Organizational Leadership: Without a clear vision for an organization, future growth is a constant challenge.
Five Student Chapters were chosen in advance to present their best practices. Each presenter displayed their passion for continuing to spread the word on the geosciences, to secondary schools and countries. They included:
- Emma Brand, Memorial University, Canada
- Jan Walbrecker, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
- Isabella Lima, Federal University of Para, Brazil
- Sasa Smiljanic, Union University, Serbia
- Zhiguo Wang, Southwest Petroleum University, China
- Eduard Medina, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia
Ryan, VP of Exploration for Chevron, spoke at the SLS luncheon, about leadership and the technological advances that the geosciences have made since he was a student. He focused on three types of leadership:
Technical—included digital and overall advancements the geosciences have made in recent years.
Business—the return on investments to investors must meet their expectations and their goals.
People—the practical day-to-day activity that these students will partake in with their peers and industry-driven leaders.
Ryan concluded by saying that today’s geoscientists have an incredible responsibility as leaders, but he was very confident in the student leaders that SEG had chosen to represent the 2009 SLS.
Members of the incoming and outgoing Executive Committee facilitated a problem-solving sessions where participants broke up into small groups to answer the following questions:
- In servicing the career needs of students, what should SEG Online encompass to aid students in preparing students for a career in the geoscience field?
- What can SEG do to foster relationships between industry and academia?
- The cost of SEG student membership is not only paid by corporate sponsors, but also heavily subsidized by SEG. How can SEG establish a sustainable cost model that encourages students while controlling the expanding costs of growing global student membership?
- SEG is considering replacing paper copies of The Leading Edge with online access only? Do students in your chapter currently utilize TLE online and how can SEG alter online delivery of TLE in a way that is most helpful to students?
Once again the passion to continue spreading the word of geosciences was shown in the answers provided.
The 2009 SLS ended with students having a positive outlook on their futures, and the SEG Executive Committee and Senior Staff knowing some of the future leaders in the field of geosciences were sitting in that very room.
Photographs provided by Barchfeld Photography
