Find out how you can be a 2021 IBA Industry Mentor to a school in need
The Imperial Barrel Award Committee created a unique opportunity in 2020: the IBA Global Mentor program. The program’s mission is to aid student teams at universities around the world who lack industry mentors. Last year we solicited the AAPG membership in an effort to obtain mentors and are pleased to announce that 81 geoscientists volunteered and were partnered at 42 schools. This “call to volunteer” is an effort in knowledge transfer where you have an opportunity to coach the next generation of emerging petroleum geoscientists who are completing their final years of university study and are at the forefront of their oil and gas industry careers.
Some of you in our geoscience community mentor IBA teams not associated with the Global Mentor program. To all of you, a most sincere thank you! Whether you’ve mentored one year or every year of IBA’s existence, please know that your hard work and efforts will be more fully recognized as we move forward with our IBA mentoring program.
For those industry mentors who are already partnered with a school that will compete in 2021, your team’s faculty adviser will populate your name and email in the team registration. The Global Mentor program is only for those volunteer industry mentors who are willing to partner with a school in need, which will be identified and communicated to these mentors and schools prior to the onset of the competition.
If you were a 2020 IBA Global Mentor, you must re-register at the IBA Global Mentor registration page (https://www.aapg.org/forms/iba-team-mentor) to ensure we have an accurate representation of all who wish to participate in 2021 and that your contact information is current.
With official IBA registration of every school’s industry mentors, this will provide AAPG the information required to issue personalized Industry Mentor Certificates of Recognition at the end of the competition, similar to the IBA student participant’s certificates.
Additionally, with a robust mentor database, region and section IBA coordinators and the IBA Mentoring Committee will be in a position to provide or change mentors as needed.
There are schools around the world who lack industry mentors and this is where you can make a difference. With your exploration experience, you are in a great position to provide coaching and advising, to provide guidance and support to the IBA students as they undertake to interpret their AAPG-provided dataset.
As geoscientists in our industry, we’ve each acquired a unique set of knowledge and skills, through both education and experience. AAPG has always been there for us throughout our careers and, for some of us, continues to be long after we retire. What drives any of us in our desire to mentor and “give back” is unique and we each have our own story. How about giving mentoring a try to deserving and talented students? I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
Mentoring in this competition encompasses more than a unidirectional flow of geologic, geophysical or paleobiologic facts from mentor to mentee. IBA industry mentors have an opportunity to be trusted counselors, a veritable cheerleader of sorts, to students embarking on that fun and exciting journey of deciphering a basin’s history.
This IBA mentor-mentee partnering is truly a mutually beneficial relationship where we all learn and have fun in the process. It is a great example of teamwork between students and coaches.
Please consider registering to be a global mentor and coach a 2021 IBA team in need. These are schools who request industry mentors when they register their team for the AAPG IBA competition.
More information regarding industry mentor FAQs can be read in the latest blog (AAPG.to/IBAmentor).