AAPG Student Chapters in Canada first sprang up between 1998 and 2000 at three western Canada universities. After an eight year gap, five more chapters emerged and have taken root.
AAPG Student Chapters in Canada first sprang up between 1998 and 2000 at three western Canada universities. After an eight year gap, five more chapters emerged and have taken root. When the University of Regina Student Chapter of AAPG began in 1998, motivation and support from the Saskatchewan Geological Society made all the difference. Over the next two years, chapters were formed at University of Calgary in 1999 and University of Manitoba in 2000.
Between 2000 and 2008, Canada Region experienced a hiatus in new student chapters being formed. The real cause for this break in the upward trend of new student chapters is unknown. It may be attributable to temporary global geopolitical instability or fears of reaching "peak oil". Or perhaps at the time, AAPG services and career benefits were simply unknown to the student population in Canada.
Whatever the reason, there certainly was no shortage of university graduates with geoscience degrees – at least not at the University of Alberta from the years 2005-2007. During those years, the graduating undergraduate classes were the largest in the history of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at U of A.
Following on the large undergrad graduating class of 2007, in December 2008 the upward growth trend in new student chapters resumed when the University of Alberta Student Chapter of AAPG became the second chapter in Alberta Province. Ironically, this resurgence among AAPG’s youngest members came about virtually in tandem with the Q4 2008 economic slowdown that some refer to as the "Great Recession". But apparently despite the gloomy financial picture casting a shadow across much of North America, Europe, and parts of Asia that year, AAPG Student Chapters across Canada have asserted their vigor and have continued to do so every year since.
In fact, since early 2013, the number of AAPG Student Chapters in Canada has grown by over fifty percent. Memorial University of Newfoundland AAPG Student Chapter is the first chapter in Newfoundland Province. In the same year, Mount Royal University AAPG Student Chapter was formed. Then in 2014, two more new chapters took shape at University of Saskatchewan and McMaster University in Ontario.
For more information on how to form an AAPG Student Chapter: http://students.aapg.org/.
Contact AAPG Canada Region Student Chapter Coordinators:
Meriem Dennis
Kevin Jackson