Welcome Class of 2016
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September 11, 2012
UT PGE is thrilled to welcome the class of 2016. The undergraduate students started their college journey around the 2012 London Olympics and will close the books with the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Successful UT PGE students share a lot of common characteristics with Olympic athletes: highly motivated, committed, team players and knowledge seeking. In addition, the four-year experience will have rewarding and challenging moments as students will be tested.
This class is unique as they participated in the first ever Freshman Fall Retreat sponsored by BP. The day-long event:
- Provided incoming students with a sneak preview of PGE
- Allowed students to build meaningful relationships with their cohort
- Taught the importance of obtaining internships and joining student organizations
- Introduced students to faculty and staff members
One neat story out of the freshman class is a set of incoming fraternal twin girls, Emma and Jessica Fogarty, who both share a passion for petroleum engineering. When asked why they chose UT, Emma said, “I know I will be held to high standards, but provided with a ton of great resources. Also, both my mom (Susan Whitten Fogarty) and grandpa (Harry Dreggors) came to school here, so I saw it was a good university.”
Emma and Jessica shared what aspects of college they are looking forward to the most. Emma said, “I have always been interested in math and science, so petroleum engineering is exciting to me. I think there are great opportunities for women in the petroleum field too.” Jessica added, “I’m most looking forward to living on my own and having the ability to choose my own path.”
Both girls shared how lucky they felt to be able to share a similar college experience as they will have a great support system within each other, which will help them succeed. Both have set high goals for themselves as well. “I want to be more involved than just academics. It’s important for me to get internship experience and potentially study abroad. I’m also excited about joining a sorority and meeting a ton of new people,” said Emma.
