A team of Petroleum Engineering students of Palawan State University won in the SPE Petroleum & Energy Competition Technology Advance (SPECTA) 2021 Smart Competition, held on January 9.
Second year students Eros Escalona, Gene Kyle Sardido, Gene Eisen Loise Nale, and their team leader Kyth Laurenz Fernando Aguilar, and third year student Cloyd Ian Demandante took home the silver medal:
The competition was organized by the Society of Petroleum Engineers in Indonesia through Zoom comprising of three categories.
Kyth, the team leader, shared that before the competition began, they underwent a university-wide qualifying round. Their team, named PSU-1, was selected to join and compete for the SMART Competition.
Since the start of the school year, they have not seen each other in the flesh because of the pandemic.
Two weeks before the competition, they did all the preparation they could do without pressuring themselves. They enjoyed the review sessions even though they did not know each other personally.
Kyth was the one who invited his schoolmates to join and form their group to represent the Society of Petroleum Engineers-PSU chapter.
When they were asked about being pressured Eisen said, “parang siguro kung iisipin natin ung word na pressure, siguro hindi, pero, in-adopt namin na we need to enjoy reviewing, in order for us to be happy in the competition, kasi kung review session, iniisip mo na kaagad na pressured ka na… mas lalo kang kakabahan, mas lalo kang maguguluhan, then you’re getting affected din, it’s not a proper way to pressuring yourself pag nag-eepect ka ng something brighter.”
“Iyong pressure na yun nawala talaga yun dahil sobrang nag-eenjoy talaga kami during review session every single night,” further said Kyth.
Gene Kyle Sardido, one of the team members, said she joined the contest for experience as part of being a college student. They said they used the time to study and form a resilient group during the preparation and enjoy the competition.
“Kwentuhan lang kami ng kwentuhan and at the same time tawanan lang ng tawanan and noong dumating na ang competition, ang naging mindset lang namin is we did our best naman sa pagreview, we tried to prepare talaga for the competition, we expected nothing and we promised to ourselves we will do our best, no matter what happen,” Kyth added.