UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Being an elite student in an elite program at Penn State affords some elite opportunities.

For Andrew Vislosky, a senior majoring in petroleum and natural gas engineering at Penn State, it meant being one of eight students worldwide granted an all-expenses-paid trip to the Oil & Money Conference recently held in London. Through the scholarship, Vislosky joined a handful of other students in interacting with more than 300 energy executives from across the globe.

There, Vislosky met with CEOs of major petroleum companies and energy intelligence experts who talked about the current state of the industry as well as future predictions.

“It was a rare opportunity to receive an excellent award, gain some very worthwhile exposure from the career standpoint and experience the great culture of London,” Vislosky said.

Vislosky was chosen for the 2017 Oil & Money Leaders for Tomorrow scholarship, sponsored by Total S.A., Gunvor S.A. and Lukoil, for his industry experience, academic performance and leadership skills.

“I believe I was selected because I’ve had four solid summers of internship experience, three of which were specific to the oil and gas sector, most importantly spending the last two summers working for Royal Dutch Shell as a Wells Engineering intern,” said Vislosky, who was vice president of the Penn State Chapter of the American Association of Drilling Engineers in 2016-17.

Vislosky said the conference also gave him a better appreciation of the oil and gas global industry. It also gave him a bit of time for sightseeing, visiting landmarks such as London Bridge, Big Ben and the Tower of London.

A connection with industry leaders wasn’t foreign to him, however. He said that’s a strength with the Penn State program.

“I credit an enormous part of my success to being fortunate enough being a student at Penn State,” Vislosky said. “Penn State does a lot of things really well, but I believe one of the most important aspects of what the school offers is that they do an excellent job gaining recruiting exposure from major companies. Our job fair approach is fantastic, and that is where I connected with many of the companies where I secured internships. I believe this is the single largest value to this great University.”

After graduating in May, Vislosky will work at Royal Dutch Shell, a company that awarded him three technical scholarships during the past three years. Vislosky took advantage of numerous scholarship opportunities including several through the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and external sources such as Newfield Exploration and the Society of Petroleum Engineers.  

Vislosky will be based in New Orleans, working as a well engineer where he will split time between research, business preparation and offshore excursions.

“This is really exciting because I get to balance my job between planning wells that will be drilled in the future and as well spending time 75 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico working on the drilling operations themselves,” Vislosky said. “It’s very exciting to do this kind of work and is one of the reasons I picked petroleum engineering. You can’t beat the excitement of flying in a helicopter to work in the Gulf of Mexico!”