ROTA Summer Vocational Program
A student's point of view on her experience at RasGas
How many children sleep with empty stomachs, live on the delicate string of hope, which wavers at every gust of wind, and brings in front of them the harsh realities of life?
Reach Out To Asia, as a charity organization has had a tremendously successful journey from its inception to today, when its development accelerates with every activity it organizes. More than a year ago, when I volunteered at ROTA to visit Pakistan's earthquake-affected areas in order to help schools in Kashmir restore their education system, I was ignorant of the fact that the trip would change me for rest of my life. Today, after finishing a month-long internship with RasGas through ROTA's Summer Vocational Program, I can only be amazed at the new grounds its original initiative 'EDUCATION FOR ALL' has broken. I'd never been exposed to a professional environment before, wherein I was dealt with like a potential employee; as I was only a High school graduate, inexperienced in the ways of the business world ad unaware of the complexities of their work.
At RasGas, I had the incredible opportunity, of not only learning about its specific departmental functions and employee roles, but had the chance to witness, first hand, whatever it was that I learned in the offices of each department. For instance, by the time I was rotated to join the Drilling and Completions Department, I'd already been to the Rig, in the middle of the sea, where LNG was drilled out in its raw form. More than anything, I fulfilled my heart's desire of flying in a helicopter, as I'd often wanted to do as a child. Tough cameras were not allowed on board, nor at the Rig, I will never erase the beautiful views of the ocean that I captured in my minds eye. Living on a 28-day shift on the Rig is a job that many will run away from, but the recreational facilities, friendly environment and assurance of 'safety for all' are factors that probably compensate to the home-sickness that employees may feel after living away from home for so long.
Before going to the Rig, I'd been exposed to the general procedure that allows extraction of gas from the ground and the sort of machinery required to perform the job. Within the technical Planning Department, I learned about the global distribution of natural gas and the trend of global demand of gas vs. time; starting from the 1960's to present day. Moreover, specialists from the Petroleum Engineering Department went over the geological side of the drilling process, explaining the roles of geologists, petroleum and chemical engineers in detecting possible gas reservoirs and attempting to extract gas from them. The most wonderful thing was that we were taken to see the actual equipment that is used for drilling holes. We visited both the Mechanical and Electrical lab at Schlumberger and also visited the warehouses where all the pipes were stored and checked for faults.
Everything from learning technical terminologies used by the five departments to the specific tasks each of the employees within those departments performed was part of the program. In other words, I was given a chance to peek into the daily operations of the five departments, interact with employees and learn about their specific roles and meet the Departmental Manager at the end of the week to discuss what I'd learned during my stay with department concerned. I gained invaluable knowledge about the organizational structure of RG, which performs a vast range of functions- I learned the roles/responsibilities of the several RG Groups, Departments and then Sub departmental-Sections and also had a very good understanding of its relationship with companies like ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum.
If I start describing all that I have learned during this internship program, I might as well end up filling this page and the following. Thus, I will conclude by thanking everyone I shadowed at RasGas; thank you for allowing me to learn the invaluable skills required for surviving in a competitive working environment. These skills of professionalism at work will come in use even in the field of Medicine that I plan on getting trained in at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. Finally, I will extend my thanks to Reach Out To Asia for giving me this wonderful opportunity to learn beyond books and for providing me with this wonderful chance of working with a highly efficient and multi-cultural business organization; RasGas.
For those of you who've still not joined the family of Reach Out To Asia, I'd urge you to participate in as many of its activities as possible, because they work for the betterment of humanity-which is a cause that extends to people from all races, cultures and backgrounds; lets make this world a better place to live in, lets do it through Education...
Fatima Ahmed Raja
Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar - Class of 2013