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A new educational exchange program between the USC Department of Geological Sciences and the National University of Equatorial Guinea (UNGE) in Africa is making steady progress toward its goal of producing trained workers for the country’s burgeoning oil industry.
The Guinea Equatorial Geosciences (GEGEO) Program began last year with an initial start-up grant of $500,000 from South Atlantic Natural Resources, a small earth resources firm run by the father-son team of Ted and Terrence Barr. In September, it will enroll its second class of 22 students in Equatorial Guinea whose tuition and most of their expenses are subsidized.
The program also has sent two exchange students to USC Columbia where they have begun work toward their baccalaureate degrees in geology under full scholarships.
A broadband VSAT satellite link has been established between UNGE, Arcadia University in Glenside, Pa., and USC, a major development that is expected to provide live two-way classes between the three schools. It is one of the first such satellite links at a university in central Africa.
“I’m happy with the support we’re getting and with the progress of the students, they seem to be doing quite well,” said GEGEO project director James N. Kellogg, professor and chair of the geological sciences department. Kellogg added that UNGE students were positive and enthusiastic after their first year in the three-year geosciences technical engineering degree program and that it was gaining support from other oil companies.
“Three oil companies have already joined the project, and we hope that the four major oil companies actively producing oil in Equatorial Guinea (Exxon-Mobil, Devon Ocean Energy, Amerada-Hess Triton, and Marathon), plus South Atlantic, will be funding the project by year’s end, Kellogg added.
Equatorial Guinea’s minister of mines and energy has expressed satisfaction with the way the scholarship program is working and has inquired about whether the country can send more students to USC for study with government scholarships, Kellogg said.
Equatorial Guinean students Jose Manuel Bacale Ndong Bindaug and Jorge Botala Boloso, have already arrived at USC to study in the English Program for Internationals during the fall semester. They will start their baccalaureate geology coursework in the spring 2005 semester.
At UNGE, Richard Werner is teaching English as a second language while Martin Llano teaches geology. Werner also will help coordinate UNGE’s on-line technology lab.
The GEGEO Steering Committee, which provides guidance and coordination necessary to implement and manage the program, consists of members of the USC geology faculty. The committee is chaired by Robert Thunell, geology graduate studies director, and also includes James Kellogg; Adriana Chacón, GEGEO project manager; Jim Knapp, USC geology undergraduate director; Camelia Knapp, USC assistant professor of geology; and Bill Kanes, professor emeritus of geology.
Kellogg is hopeful the geosciences exchange program can be replicated in other academic disciplines in Equatorial Guinea, and that it will help funnel more of the country’s oil revenue back to Equatorial Guineans.
He sees vast potential for funding like-minded projects in health-related fields, both to learn from and to help the West African country’s people. And he thinks of the exchange program as being an important step in building an educational infrastructure that will help train scientists, teachers, and technicians who will be needed for the country to fully benefit from the promise of its newfound oil wealth.
“Certainly with the satellite link and the training of the Equatorial Guineans at home and overseas, that’s a promising start,” he said.
8/04
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During a visit to the National University of Equatorial Guinea (UNGE) in Malabo, James Kellogg, chair and professor of geological sciences at USC, right, met with, from left, Maximiliano Sero Mene, UNGE’s secretary; Leigh Evans, public affairs manager of ExxonMobil in Equatorial Guinea; and Martin Llano, geology instructor and director of the Guinea Equatorial Geosciences Program in Equatorial Guinea. 
