Texas Students up for the “Energy Challenge”
Posted on Blog on June 14, 2013by the Texas Natural Gas Now Team
Kudos to two Texas universities – The University of Houston Downtown and Texas A&M University – for earning Scholastic Achievement Awards and the opportunity to present their final presentations for ANGA¹s Collegiate Energy Challenge in Washington, D.C.!
The Collegiate Energy Challenge, a collaboration of ANGA and EdVentures Partners, is a nationwide contest allowing college students to create an integrated marketing campaign that will help educate and engage younger generations about the natural gas industry and the many benefits it provides the U.S. Each of the participating student teams was given a $3,000 budget and was responsible for the research, creation, and implementation of a campaign on their campus.
Stefanie Munoz, the advertising guru on The University of Houston Downtown team, really enjoyed the project as it provided “experience working as a team and for a client with an expectation that you would execute and deliver a great final product.”
The University of Houston Downtown's team, known as the “Lone Star Energy Group,” found that while much of their generation had some familiarity with natural gas and its use, nearly 40 percent of the sample population was unaware of this domestic resource’s many benefits. The University of Houston Downtown found the best way to reach their community and generation was through social media and word-of-mouth from friends. After launching the campaign, the team was able to successfully educate their community about natural gas, and their peers were interested in learning more about domestic jobs, utilizing domestic energy sources and a cleaner fuel source.
Texas A&M’s team was encouraged throughout the whole campaign – from the initial research stages to actually getting to implement the campaign on their campus. Located in Texas where natural gas and oil development is nothing new – the team went into the project with the expectation that their peers had some knowledge or awareness of natural gas. The team quickly found out while many had heard about natural gas, the understanding of the process and benefits were lacking, which rooted their campaign in educating their peers.
“Dr. Steven Holditch, a professor at Texas A&M, came to speak at our event and walked through the entire process and all the benefits,” said Katelyn Duecker, Texas A&M team member. “All the attendees were really impressed and it even spurred an interest in working in the natural gas industry.”
Robert Calvin, the team's research lead, noted that “the community responded to the tangible benefits, such as the environmental statics and economic benefits.”
All of the teams agreed that as their individual communities learned more about natural gas, more people embraced and supported natural gas development.
Other participants included Middle Tennessee State University, Georgia State University, West Virginia University, and Case Western Reserve University. Congratulations to all the participants for a job well done!
