Energy land management
students at
West Virginia University
will have additional opportunities to network with industry professionals
thanks to an endowment established by DPS Land Services.
The $25,000 endowment – the first for the energy land management program in the
Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design – is designed to
provide funding to support travel for conferences, meetings and other extracurricular
activities for students enrolled in the program.
“The generosity of DPS Land Services will help our program and students continue
to thrive – and for that, we are extremely thankful,” said
Shawn Grushecky, program coordinator and assistant professor of energy land
management.
As head of the program, Grushecky consistently works to establish industry connections
that could help provide his students with a more well-rounded educational experience.
DPS Land Services, a full-service land company, is among several energy companies
with large footprints in West Virginia and the Marcellus Shale that
have supported the ELM program and its students.
In the fall of 2016, company representatives were invited to campus to learn more
about the program.
“We had the opportunity to meet with each student and discuss their goals,” said
Tim Schultz, Jr., vice president for the company. “We quickly realized that both
the program and the students were something special”
Established in 2014, the program is one of only 12 in North America accredited by
the American Association of Professional Landmen.
According to Schultz, one of the company’s top organization concerns for the future
is personnel.
“The industry is in desperate need of motivated individuals who are excited to be
in the oil and gas industry,” he said. “We feel that WVU ELM students fit this
profile. Given the level of education the students receive, it made complete sense
to contribute to the program.”
Schultz went onto say that extracurricular activities, meetings and conferences are
critical to student development.
“It’s in these settings that students are able to apply what they’ve learned in the
classroom,” he continued. “Real world experience is invaluable and we’re proud
to help facilitate participation in these activities.”
DPS Land Services provides full abstracts, mineral title, due diligence, curative,
well inspections, leasing, GIS mapping, heirship, and administrative services.
Its management team members have been involved in leasing over 400,000
net acres, completing over 7,500 abstracts, performing due diligence on over 600,000
acres, and managed efforts to acquire over 25,000 leases. The company has
catalogued, organized, built data bases, and managed company lease and title files
for more than seven years in the Appalachian Basin.
Support for the energy land management program was provided in conjunction with
A State of Minds: The Campaign for West Virginia’s University. The comprehensive
campaign being conducted by the
WVU Foundation on behalf of the University runs through December 2017.
