Another Record for the 10th Annual Kern County Engineers Day
February, 2010; by John Kaiser – Nearly 500 Juniors and Seniors and their teachers from 22 area High Schools swarmed the campus of California State University Bakersfield for the 10th Annual Engineers day event. This event is held each year during National Engineers Week and is sponsored by the San Joaquin Valley Section of the Society of Petroleum Engineers in partnership with CSUB and in conjunction with the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, School-to-Career program. The students in attendance had enough interest and accomplishments in Math and Science to consider applying to an Engineering school.
The two speaking venues were moderated by John Kaiser and Ashley Jorishie, both PEs. Soraya Coley, CSUB Provost, welcomed the students and teachers and wished them well in their experience. A host of speakers talked about what they did or why they thought it made sense to become an Engineer at this point in the students lives. Megan Reisig, a Petroleum Engineer with Occidental of Elk Hills who works in the HR department shared insight into the application process and summer intern programs.
Carrie Popa, a Petroleum Engineer with Chevron shared some experiences she has had and what it takes to get into an Engineering school. Dr. Javier Trigos from the CSUB Math department discussed the derivation of the Pathagoreus Theory. Dr. Kamel Haddad, a Dean at CSUB described their pre-Engineering program and how a successful completion of that program guarantees the student acceptance to any Cal Poly SLO Engineering program as a transfer student. Staci Loewy and Bob Horton, CSUB Geology, described their program and the importance of an Engineering degree.
Emmanuel Vazquez, a young Petroleum Engineer with Chevron related some of his experiences to the students. Alan White, Operations Manager for Occidental of Elk Hills, shared some research he participated in investigating earthquakes and prediction methods. Gene Voiland, retired founding CEO of Aera Energy, shared his path from becoming an Engineer (ChE) to CEO and how he did it. Anthony Lusich, PE and GE with Kleinfelder described the kinds of projects he works on as a Civil Engineer. Dan Cromquist, CE with AECom, talked about some of the public works projects he has done. Bob Palermo, VP with Aera Energy, talked about the kinds of things in everyday life that Engineers are responsible for and his vision for the future.
Mickey Bowen, Edwards AFB, talked about the Flight Test Center at Edwards and the heavy involvement of Engineers. John Kaiser left each group with one parting thought. In the next 5-10 years, 50% of the Engineering workforce will retire. That represents an enormous opportunity for those High School students graduating in the next couple years. This event was designed to mimic a professional conference with technical sessions (speakers), Exhibits and Tours.
The final venue which received rave reviews from the students was a campus tour with emphasis on the science and technology fields. The students were broken up into groups of 20-30 and enjoyed a look at the Scanning Electron Microscope Lab and some of the images that were on display. They saw a demonstration in the robotics lab. Then a Physics demonstration and finally a Chemistry Lab.
Lunch was provided again by Halliburton. Mr. Paul Smith (aka BBQ King) with “Big Red” fixed hamburgers for everyone involved, no one went home hungry. Lots of rave reviews here as well.
The SJV-SPE is looking forward to an even larger event next year.
The SJV-SPE would like to thank their sponsors: Occidental of Elk Hills; Taft College; Aera Energy, LLC; Chevron; Halliburton
The SJV-SPE would also like to thank their exhibitors: Occidental of Elk Hills; Aera Energy; Chevron; SJV-SPE; BLM; Cal State University Bakersfield; Edwards Flight Test Center; UC Merced; Halliburton; Taft College
