Activities & Organizations News

UH Society of Petroleum Engineers wins Student Chapter Excellence Award

The UH Society of Petroleum Engineers was acknowledged in the top 20 percent of student chapters for the first time since the chapter’s start in 2014. | File Photo

For the first time since the organization was formed in 2014, the UH Society of Petroleum Engineers received a Student Chapter Excellence Award. 

The award recognizes the top 20 percent of qualified student chapters and is the second highest honor organization chapters can receive.

“The award is so much more than a reward. To me, it represents an encouragement, a new achievement for our University of Houston SPE Chapter that should be the minimum for us henceforth,” SPE president Lotanna Ohazuruike said.

The UH SPE chapter was one of approximately 411 student chapters that apply for the award annually. In order to receive the award, the organization submitted an annual report.

“We all feel very proud because it is our first award since the organization’s establishment. It motivates us even more to achieve higher goals for our chapter,” former SPE president Makpal Sariyeva said. 

Applicants’ annual reports are scored in categories such as industry engagements, operations, planning, community involvement, professional development and innovation.

The award has been the hard work of the team since the beginning of the organization and it has been some time for all leaders to work toward this common goal, Sariyeva said.

“When I started out as president, our board’s main goal was to expand our voices, get new student members enrolled, along with sending a delegation to international sections,” Sariyeva said in a  news release.

“Our university chapter was established in 2014. It’s still very new, so it took some time to reach our goals.”

“We were definitely confident that we were going to get recognition for our hard work in the form of an award such as this,” Sariveya added. “Our board and our members worked hard to attain these accolades.”

Along with the Student Chapter Excellence Award, the UH SPE has also held 86 events and won six other awards.

This includes earning first place in undergraduate and graduate divisions of the SPE-CGS Regional Student Paper Contest and having a team of chapter members place third in the Petrobowl, a fast pace quiz challenge. 

Members also qualified for Phase 2 in the Drillbotics competition, where students design and build a small drilling rig. Members have also won the three top spots in the SPE-Gulf Coast Section’s poster competition.

“For our chapter, this (is) the reward for the hard work that was done over the year and is also a motivation and a challenge to overcome for the 2020-2021 board,” former SPE secretary Tchemongo Berte said.

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