Field Camps Reception

A longtime SEG program gets a new boost

Mick Swiney, SEG Staff

"We appreciate both groups, those who are giving and those who are receiving," says SEG Foundation Board Liaison Mike Loudin in his opening comments. "You form such an important basis of everything that happens in the exploration industry."

"We are the Society of Exploration Geophysicists," says Rachel Newrick, Chairman of the SEG Field Camps Committee, addressing a ballroom full of her committee's past and present members, supporters, and beneficiaries. "Geophysics is the study of the physical properties of the earth, physical properties that we measure. That measurement is critical - and although we can study, attend lectures in classes and query our colleagues, we learn more thoroughly, generally, in the field. So to support field camps is to help build the foundation of our society."

Among the sounds and bustle of this traditionally busy Tuesday evening of the SEG annual meeting a cozy Mandalay Bay ballroom hosts a reception honouring a long-standing program that is now the focus of increased interest at SEG. The Field Camps Program funds in-depth geophysics camps that give college and secondary school students a chance to practice geophysics where the science itself was born, in the field.

"If you don't get it right in the field, you can kiss the rest goodbye," says ExxonMobil geophysicist Mike Loudin, who officiated at the reception as SEG Foundation Board liaison.

"Studies have shown that if you can get a kid in the field, you can get him for life," adds Rhonda Jacobs, Grant Programs Manager at SEG. "You talk to the people in this room, and for most of them their defining moment, when they knew they wanted to be a geophysicist, came in the field."

Many of those in attendance have made time between dashes to other meetings, receptions, and events, and many arrive after the start of the reception or have to rush off early - reflective of the Field Camps Program itself, a critical endeavor kept alive among the demands of other industry priorities by the passion of a dedicated few.

A dedicated few like the sponsors of the program, such as TGS, who provides an overwhelming 80% of all SEG Field Camp funding. Many sponsors followed their original pledges with additional one-off amounts to meet particular needs, while others who had not originally planned to support the program came up with the necessary funds after being approached by Field Camps Committee members who yearned to include deserving programs that would otherwise have gone without SEG funding. Such sponsors include Geophysical Pursuit, Prospectiuni, the Rutt Bridges Endowment, the Scott Petty Foundation, and CGG Veritas. 

Their dedication is reflected in the programs they support, many of which boast direct benefits to the profession. A focal point of the festivities, for example, was the acknowledgement of the first-ranked recipient of support from the Field Camps Committee, SAGE (the Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience), a program based in Purdue University that has used "hands on" geophysical exploration and research to teach field methods and research over a four-week program to almost 700 students since its founding in 1982.

While it is now sponsored by the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the National Science Foundation and supported by an endowment provided by Geophysical Pursuit, throughout the years SAGE's founders and leadership have often had to fight to preserve the program's existence through a tenacity commended by Loudin, who led reception attendees in singing "Happy Birthday" in honour of SAGE's thirtieth anniversary.

Or consider the example of the University of Texas at Austin's GeoForce program: one of the 15 field camps receiving funding, GeoForce brings minority and under-represented high school students from inner city and rural areas to the field and introduces them to geoscience at its most practical and tangible.

Students from these demographic groups are likely to drop out of school; and yet GeoForce students currently have a 100% graduation rate.

"I used to be a counselor at GeoForce for two years," says Alicia Farre, who now works as Student Services Administrator at the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. "Now I'm seeing the same students who participated in that program coming through our geosciences programs at the Jackson School."

"We have students who came through these programs together, and they keep in touch via Facebook and other channels," Rhonda Jacobs says. "You see all of the leaders of these students now helping to start field camps in other places." With growing concerns about the availability of geoscientists to accommodate increased oil and gas production in future years, programs like these showing high recruitment success are worth every penny - and as it turns out, a little goes a surprisingly long way.

"Sometimes it doesn't take much," Jacobs says. "One student group we support stretches their funds so well that they not only finance their field camp, but even print an 'annual report' on their results at the quality of a professional magazine. They accomplish all of this with something like 1500 US dollars."

For practicing geophysicists like Field Camp Committee Chair Rachel Newrick, field data forms the foundation of geoscience.

Still, Jacobs adds, there is a need for more awareness and more sponsorship to ease the painful decisions committee members must reach on which camps will receive funding, decisions often requiring extensive debate and analysis among the committee due to the high quality of the applications received. "The program need is growing beyond our ability to fund it," she warns, "and good field camps are going wanting. We just need more money."

If these enormous and demonstrable benefits to SEG and the industry are any indication - not to mention the passion, enthusiasm, and tireless commitment of the staff, sponsors, and committee members at this evening's reception - this program is certain to get the support it needs.

"We are in Vegas, city of gambling," Rachel Newrick says in her closing remarks. "Many will tell you that in the oil industry, we gamble. But we don't. We make informed investment decisions by quantifying risk based on data. That data comes from the field. So thank you to everyone here for donating, volunteering, organizing, and participating in field camps. You are the heart of our society."