Leoben wins
2009 European Outstanding Student Chapter Award
SPE Mining University of Leoben Student Chapter has been named the Outstanding Student Chapter for the European region! Congratulations to the students who organized numerous successful events, including a BBQ that was attended by more than 600 visitors. Read the following interview with the chapter to learn their advice and plans for next year.
What would you consider as your chapter’s biggest accomplishment this year?
The SPE Student Chapter is by far the most active of our university's student
clubs. There have been a lot of company presentations and recruiting events.
We offer our members support in their application for internships and organize
interviews with major companies. To gain an insight into the international petroleum industry we organized a fieldtrip to Baku (Azerbaijan). We also attended several
SPE and OEGEW events (e.g. SPE Oilfield Barbecue, Vienna Basin Section,
OEGEW fall conference, DMGK spring conference).
What was the biggest challenge your student chapter faced during the academic
year and how did you overcome it?
We feel that the most significant contribution of our chapter was the time
and effort that we dedicated to relieve the burden o a large influx of new
students and the task of fundraising for the year’s activities. In the last few
years we had trouble getting new students involved in our SPE team.
Therefore we tried a new approach by organizing more social events and
meetings to get in touch with interested younger studens who want to
contribute in advancing our chapter at its kinds.
What student chapter activity did your chapter enjoy most? Which was the
least enjoyable?
Pro: Definitely the most enjoyable activity, even if it involved manpower of
all active members, was the BBQ we organized for all University members.
This is a main happening in the annual event calendar of our university and by
far the biggest one of its kind e.g. this year we’ve been honored to welcome
more than 600 visitors.
Contra: On the other side it’s importunate but obligatory to ask companies
for sponsorship and financial help concerning our activitie and office operations.
Any big plans in store for next year you would like to share?
Actually we have a lot of plans for next year, as we for example are already in
planning of our annual excursion. Furthermore we look ahead to advancing
our social events, like a journey to the SPE Annual Technical Conference and
Exhibition in Florence.
Special thanks to: (chapter officer names, faculty advisor, etc.)
Mr. Gerhard Thonhauser (Faculty advisor)
Mrs. Monika Mörtl (Presitent)
Mr. Stefan Veit (Vice-President)
Mr. Philipp Hilzensauer (Secretary)
Mrs. Karin Hofstätter (Treasurer)
Mr. Thomas Tuschl (Advisor)