seg.org - Annual Meeting 2007 news coverage

Engaging the Future: SEG/Chevron Student Leadership Symposium 2007

Linda Holeman

22 September 2007--—Forty-one students from 16 countries representing 36 universities convened in San Antonio on Saturday for the first annual SEG/Chevron Student Leadership Symposium. Gary Servos, SEG Foundation chairman, welcomed the group as “… the future, and the brightest young geophysical minds in the world today.”

The symposium kicked off with presentations from four exemplary individuals on the leadership and outreach efforts of their respective student sections. Fresh off the plane from Bucharest, Romania were Jeffery Shragge of Stanford University and Cesar Iacob of the University of Romania, who reported on their joint student section project, “In the Field.” Shragge and Iacob coordinated and led an applied geophysics field camp in the Romanian countryside for undergraduates from both universities. This project, which was funded with a grant from the SEG Foundation, gave participants practical, hands-on training and multiple data sets that will help them complete their theses as well as gain practical geophysics training.

Next was Immaculada Dura-Gomez of the University of South Carolina, whose presentation, “Promoting Geophysics among South Carolina High School Students,” detailed outreach efforts that aimed to enrich the geoscience knowledge base of area high school students and educate them about career opportunities in the geosciences.

Sergey Karpukhin, of the Novosibirsk State University, delivered the final presentation “From the Schools to the Field,” an outreach program designed not only to attract outstanding students into geophysics, but to make the field more accessible, and give students valuable opportunities in the classroom and in the field and hands-on experiences on the value of teamwork.

Later that morning, the students participated in a motivational session conducted by Clint Swindall, author, trainer, and consultant, entitled, “Engaged Leadership.” Swindall began by congratulating the students on the active roles they have taken within their student sections, noting that 100% of skills learned in this environment will be beneficial in real-world scenarios. After a discourse on the problem of disengagement in the workplace, Swindall gave the participants a five-step plan for developing a foundation for effective leadership that included:

Leading with integrity
Staying engaged in the workplace
Becoming an agent of change
Celebrating successes
Lightening up!

Peter Breunig, Chevron’s General Manager of Technical Computing, addressed the crowd during lunch, highlighting the “marvelous” opportunities for today’s students.

“More than any generation, students today are recognizing and acting on the imperative of excellence, not just as scientists, but as leaders—both on the job and in their communities,” he said.

Day one culminated in a strategic problem-solving session facilitated by the SEG Executive Committee. Participants formed teams and brainstormed on three issues confronting SEG today:

How can SEG better support international students?
How can SEG better promote Geophysics as a career?
How can SEG engage and integrate future graduates into the society?

Representatives from each team then delivered a synopsis of solutions to these issues, which ranged from improving networking and collaboration by creating student section Web sites and linking them to SEG Online; offering orientation sessions for student officers as well as faculty advisors, and increasing student involvement in SEG committees.

Executive Committee member Panos Kellamis capped the day with the challenge, “If you were in charge of SEG today, what two things would you change?” The students’ unanimous answers:

Hold additional conferences outside the United States.

Establish more student sections.

Advertise with SEG