Capital One donates money to PETSM scholarships

Book stipends are coming to specific Nicholls State University students from a large American bank company.
Capital One Bank donates a gift to the university each year. This year, the national bank is donating $20,000 to Petroleum Engineering Technology and Safety Management students for book expenses.

“What we worked out with Capital One is that they wanted to support a program that was directly tied to workforce development in South Louisiana,” said Neal Weaver, Vice President for University Advancement, “That would have an economic impact on the region. They connected to PETSM right away. They’re seeing a real tightening of belts and slow activity so they wanted to do something to help those students and a program maintain its size knowing oil will come back.”

The gift is going to be split amongst PETSM students who meet certain criteria. The university and the donor create the criteria for the stipend.

Weaver said, “We work with donors to help them find what they want to support. And if that changes from year to year than it changes from year to year. We try not to push our donors into things they are not comfortable with or don’t believe in. As Capital One says we want this, we help them find it. We try to provide the donor with a broad set of options and let them go in their direction.”

When the stipend will be presented to the students, it will be split between 33 students. These students will be chosen by being a PETSM student, being of low to moderate-income and other requirements by Capital One.

“Every scholarship has a requirement of who gets it, how it should be channeled, is it per year or is it per semester, all the details.” said Milton Saidu, Department Head of PETSM. “If it is going to apply to the department I’m excited about it because its going to really help students who need the boost and help people with hardship in the oil & gas industry. A lot of people will appreciate whatever comes in.”

PETSM has been one of the most popular degree programs on campus with over 400 undergraduate students for the fall 2015 semester. The program has recently received over $250,000 in technological and structural upgrades, which Weaver says have “gone to expanding classrooms and installing new technologies.”

“Our role is to maintain enrollment, and if not anything, we need to also actually grow the program and increase enrollment. But first of all, our current students, juniors and seniors, need to be assisted in every way to make them maintain their position in the university.” Saidu, said.

Capital One’s donation comes from their annual gifts, which have ranged from $25,000-$50,000. The bank has been a partner with the university for a long time with athletic scholarships and sponsored events.

Recent issues in the oil and gas industry have made lay-offs in the field a major possibility. Because of this, the department has been looking for ways to keep enrollment steady and graduation constant.

“To accommodate more people, the department now has two associate degrees entirely online, via Nicholls online.” Saidu said, “We are creating pathways to accommodate the people who want to come in, we just recently proposed additional minors in the program to take people in.”

Even with the oil and gas industry moving downward, the department program is still looking up.

“Do you know a family member, an aunt or uncle who works in oil and gas? If the answer is yes, do you like the life you see, are they making a decent wage? More thank likely it’s yes. The baby boomers around World War II age group are going to retire in masses in the next 15 years. We will need a work force to replace those positions,” said Saidu.