meaning the world’s energy needs is increasingly challenging and we need people with strong foundation STEM education to be the next engineers and geologists and chemists and technologists as were in pursuit of meeting the world’s energy challenges [Music] among the many programs that BP has invested in the global STEM academies is a terrific new concept that we’re working on and it’s already made a massive impact in several countries around the world we’re excited about what we’re gonna do with this program the BP global STEM academies is a program that was started in 2018 with BP and partnership with AFS intercultural it is a program that is focused on science technology engineering and math learning as well as global competence working across cultural differences problem-solving and really working our projects together it was a international
study abroad program focused on 15 to 17 year-olds or we provided 100 scholarships to students from around the world the BP global STEM academies took place in three different locations natal Brazil Cairo Egypt and the other one was in Chicago in the United States the feedback that we received from this program has been astounding [Music] I was mind-blowing by all the different courses and all the different workshops that we went to it was a wonderful opportunity to work with new people we had great ideas we had deadlines to work on and I also think I found a new passion for me programming and I really look forward to using my knowledge I got here in the future excited to learn a lot of things meet new people and have a full intercultural experience it’s been ready great to be able to spend time with people from all over the world it was just a really interesting global experience getting to live with host family and have a microscopic close-up view college scholarships
of their lives I came here I didn’t think I was gonna make a bunch of friends I didn’t think I was gonna want to keep up with any of them as time
went on but I mean I’m was bawling last night because I was thinking about saying goodbye today you realize that you are changing as an individual when you meet new people and this is what is most precious for me the students took away a wonderful one-time experience and learned a lot from this opportunity they also took away cultural understanding and made friendships but more than that had a lot of industry insights that will lead them hopefully one day back to work at beauty in a global economy that’s increasingly competitive and relying on technology we need people with strong foundations in STEM education and that’s especially true in the energy industry we’ve made a commitment and partnership with AFS intercultural for three years so we’ve got two years left on this program we do see other opportunities and we have had a lot of requests so we hope to be able to grow this program and include other countries as well our investments and our support for STEM education are critically important for the business but they’re really important to me personally I’m an engineer by background and I know firsthand the benefit of a STEM education in the way that it helps you to think and to solve problems and ultimately to create solutions and that’s what we’re about in supporting the world’s energy needs you
