‘We agree’ Helping kids love science is pretty cool

You’ve probably seen the Chevron commercial that has been in heavy national rotation in recent weeks featuring a middle-school student who helped build a robot and a Chevron engineer who is part of the company’s effort to boost the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The spot manages to tell a compelling story in 30 seconds.

The student says, “This is an RC robotic claw. Our science teacher helped us build it.”

It cuts to the engineer, who says, “My high school science teacher made me what I am today.”

The student demonstrates the robotic claw they built and says, “Isn’t that cool?”

Cut back to the engineer for the payoff. “Now I’m a geologist at Chevron, and I get to help science teachers,” he says. “Over the last three years, we’ve put nearly $100 million into American education. That’s thousands of kids learning to love science. And that’s pretty cool.”

The resulting spot is among the most effective in Chevron’s generally well-received series of print and broadcast ads with the “We Agree” theme. It was created by advertising agency powerhouse McGarryBowen, whose client list encompasses Burger King, Disney, Kraft and Pfizer, for whom they hawk Advil and Viagra. The “We Agree” campaign was launched in the wake of a spate of oil and gas industry PR fiascos, including the BP oil spill. It has been attacked and lampooned by environmentalists and other critics, with the vociferousness of the attacks the surest testament to the effectiveness of the campaign.

The teacher and student with the robot spot prompted the Business Journal to take a look inside the campaign for our Media Watch section.

First, we learned the people in the spot are who they are claimed to be.

Kaisaiah Clark is an eighth-grade student at Helms Middle School in Richmond, Calif. He is part of the engineering academy, which uses the Project Lead the Way curriculum, one of several programs aimed at promoting the teaching of science.

The Chevron engineer is Winston Seiler, a 2009 graduate of the University of Utah with a master’s in geology and geophysics who participates in a company-sponsored educational assistance program like the one he describes.

Having resolved our curiosity on that issue, we tested the spot’s claim that, “Over the last three years we’ve put nearly $100 million into American education.” Considering Chevron is a huge multinational corporation with facilities in the U.S. worth many billions of dollars, does this figure represent the school taxes paid in the normal course of business in the communities where those facilities are located?

Wrong again, Mr. Business Journal.

According to Chevron spokesman Brent Tippen, “This figure is our social investments in education, and not taxes paid. Our approach is one of partnership — by working with specialized and innovative nonprofits, we can dramatically expand the impact of our investments and collectively make each other stronger. We believe in the power of human capital. Many students don’t know what an engineer does. To reach these students, Chevron provides opportunities for them to interact with science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) professionals.”

Tippen was ready for my semi-tough questions, and his answers gave insight into the Chevron philosophy expressed in the ad campaign.

“Since 2008, Chevron has invested over $100 million in education in the U.S.; over the last two years, in our home state of California, Chevron invested almost $10 million in STEM education and reached more than 245,000 students and 3,900 teachers across the state,” he said. “We believe in coordinated, integrated approaches. Chevron works across sectors – with nonprofits, school districts, and statewide forums – to increase STEM education opportunities for young people.”

In addition, Tippen provided an op-ed written by Joe Laymon, Chevron vice president of Human Resources, Medical and Security that is upfront in admitting the company’s focus on science education is motivated at least in part by enlightened self-interest.
“Few would have predicted that the country that put the first man on the moon would, just a few decades later, face significant disparities in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. But with the United States experiencing 9.1 percent unemployment, and with many jobs in technical fields unfilled, our challenges are clear,” wrote Laymon and emphasized that the energy industry is facing an acute human resource challenge.

“Chevron is thinking years ahead about how we can invest in the development of human capital in order to build a workforce that can utilize STEM skills and ingenuity to bring energy to the global marketplace,” he concluded.

In the end, one would must conclude that enlightened self-interest is still a form of enlightenment that can work for the common good – and that your college-student nephew who is always going on about the evils of the big oil companies doesn’t know the whole story. We agree.


Business Journal editor James Shannon offers a weekly column of business news for readers of The Examiner. For more details, see the editions of the Business journal published monthly in Beaumont, Port Arthur and Greater Orange. Check out the blog at setxbiz.blogspot.com or e-mail james@beaumontbusinessjournal.com.

Miss Pearl runs aground off Sabine Pass

On Friday, Feb. 24, the 135-foot long offshore supply vessel Miss Pearl reported grounding on the west side of the Sabine Jetties.

The U.S. Coast Guard’s Sector Houston-Galveston office received a call at 6:17 a.m. that the vessel had run aground and that the four-person crew had suffered various injuries.

A 45-foot response boat and crew from nearby USCG Station Sabine was immediately dispatched along with a MH-65C Dolphin rescue helicopter from USCG Air Station Houston. The crew of the rescue helicopter hoisted the four crewmembers to safety and transported them to awaiting EMS personnel at the Jack Brooks Regional Airport. The crew of the Miss Pearl suffered only minor injuries not requiring hospitalization.

The Miss Pearl is owned by SEACOR Marine, which operates a fleet of offshore marine support vessels serving the global offshore oil and gas exploration and production industry with an extensive fleet deployed offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, Latin America, the North Sea, West Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Built for SEACOR in 1993 by Breaux Brothers Enterprises of Loreauville, La., the Miss Pearl has a top speed of 25 knots. It can carry 62 passengers in what it describes as “business class” in addition to four crew cabins with a total of 10 berths. The ship can transport 17,154 gallons of drilling/potable water with a cargo deck that can accommodate 183 metric tons of cargo.

More important for authorities to know was that though the fuel capacity of the Miss Pearl was up to 12,206 gallons, the vessel was only transporting 6,000 gallons that morning.

The U.S. Coast Guard and personnel from the Texas General Land Office (GLO) along with representatives of vessel owner SEACOR arrived on the scene and established a unified command to oversee the incident response efforts. The Sabine Jetty Channel was temporarily closed and a 1,000-yard safety zone was established around the grounding site. A Broadcast Notice to Mariners was placed in effect to alert transiting mariners.

“The Coast Guard is working with the vessel owner and will supervise and direct cleanup efforts,” said Capt. Joe Paitl, commanding officer of MSU Port Arthur. “Our No. 1 one priority is the safety of everyone involved in the recovery and cleanup operations. Our goal is to salvage the vessel while mitigating environmental and economic impacts.”

The grounding took place in the pre-dawn darkness around 6:11 a.m., about six minutes before the first distress call was received by the Coast Guard. Although no preliminary report on the cause of the grounding is available, conditions at the time were far from ideal. In addition to being dark, there was as a small craft warning in effect with high seas and high winds along with the collision hazard at the jetty wall. The wind was blowing to the north at 29.9 knots with wind gusts up to 34.0 knots.

Of the 6,000 gallons of fuel on board, the first GLO incident report said an estimated 4,000 gallons of fuel was released from a damaged tank on Friday; sheen from the initial spill has dissipated. In order to address any possible environmental impact, containment and clean up equipment is on stand-by at the site of the grounded vessel.
By Monday, Feb. 27, a damage survey of Miss Pearl was completed allowing vessel salvage and recovery plans to be developed. USCG Lt. JG Jason Radcliffe said lightering vessels had arrived on the scene to remove the remaining fuel from the stricken ship. Lightering is the same process routinely used to offload crude oil from super tankers that are too large to navigate the Intercoastal waterway.

The grounding of the Miss Pearl is the latest reminder – as if any were necessary – that life in the Gulf of Mexico can be dangerous business and it doesn’t take a perfect storm for a seemingly routine trip to suddenly turn serious. Factor in the heavy maritime traffic generated by the oil and gas industry off the Texas and Louisiana Gulf coasts and it is a testament to the machines and their human operators that disasters are relatively few and normally far between – but not always.

On Dec. 13, 2011 – less than three months before the Miss Pearl incident – another supply boat roughly similar in size and function ran into trouble off Sabine Pass. International Marine’s 120-foot vessel the Intl’ Hunter was about 25 miles offshore when it struck a submerged object at 4:30 p.m. The ship quickly began to take on a large amount of water. Within about five minutes of the collision with the unknown object, the captain gave the order to abandon ship. The seven men aboard abandoned the vessel in lifeboats, were rescued within the hour and received medical attention upon arrival ashore in Cameron, La. They were released without serious injuries.
The submerged Int’l Hunter was located by its sister ship Int’l Navigator, an International Marine vessel that has been monitoring the area, at a location is 24 miles SE of the Sabine Pass Jetties. Despite delays caused by poor weather conditions, International Marine and the Coast Guard worked cooperatively to locate, secure and recover the vessel, while also minimizing navigational disruptions and threats to the environment.

Business Journal editor James Shannon offers a weekly column of business news for readers of The Examiner. For more details, see the editions of the Business journal published monthly in Beaumont, Port Arthur and Greater Orange. Check out the blog at setxbiz.blogspot.com or e-mail james@beaumontbusinessjournal.com.

Boutique medicine: Specialty clinics flourish as area doctors step up their game

When I moved to Southeast Texas approximately five years ago, it was offered almost as an article of faith that whenever local doctors got sick, they traveled 90 west to Houston for treatment. The unspoken corollary was that their more affluent patients did the same.

To the extent that was true, it appears that recent years have seen a changing climate here in term of medical care. A new billboard erected near the intersection of Dowlen Road and Highway 69 proclaims, “Houston … You have a problem,” then touts “World Class Surgery. Personal Attention. Right here in Beaumont.”

The billboard was created by Cornerstone Media on behalf of Previty Clinic, located inside the Memorial Hermann Baptist Hospital in Beaumont. A visit to Previty takes you outside the realm of a normal physician’s office. You are greeted with a friendly welcome from Gail, who seems more like a concierge than a charge nurse herding you through a patient-processing facility. She offers you tea or espresso and invites you to perch on a comfortable settee for the doctor who will be right with you. Even the magazines and books seem a cut above the clinical norm.

To address the issue of why you called Previty Clinic in the first place, you will see Dr. Garrett K. Peel. Despite the welcoming atmosphere, he is the real reason Previty is a cut above. Peel is a Texas native and holds medical and public health degrees from the George Washington and Johns Hopkins universities. Prior to his arrival in Beaumont, he was chief resident at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where he was trained and mentored by world-renowned surgeons and gained expertise in complex surgical procedures.

The mellow vibe at Previty reflects his belief that restoring the mind and spirit is an important part of making the body well — art and science together play a role in the healing process. In addition, Peel is chief of the Division of Oncological Surgery at Baptist, ensuring his influence and healing touch are felt outside the walls of Previty.
The availability of specialized care and physicians like Peel is making trips to Houston increasingly unnecessary for local health care consumers.

“There’s no question we have quality health care in Southeast Texas because both hospitals have been recognized nationally – Christus and Baptist,” said one observer who closely tracks the local medical scene, and enumerates the points that are important to many patients. “You have a board-certified physician – you definitely want to know that, and there’s nothing wrong with asking doctors their clinical outcomes; you can go online and see that now. So if you have everything that’s necessary here to provide the service in the right atmosphere with the right clinical outcomes in a doctor’s office that meets your needs, why would you go to Houston?”

The recent opening of the Outpatient Diagnostic Center is another case in point. Owned by Dr. Brent Mainwaring, the ODC is a full service facility on College Street in Beaumont providing all diagnostic and women’s imaging tests in a single location designed to put the patient at ease during every stage of their visit.

“We designed the facility to be very warm and welcoming,” said Mainwaring. “We don’t have televisions; we keep soft music playing in the background. The colors are muted, and we have original art on the wall. We want our patients to be as relaxed as possible during the testing process.”

Our local medical observer told the Business Journal not all diagnostic facilities are created equal.

“Insurance companies are all about saving dollars,” said the observer. “If you need an MRI, they may send you over to the MRI place that used to be a movie theater that has a rejuvenated MRI machine that is probably 15 years old and you can get your MRI for half the price. Never mind they can’t see a tumor that’s in your liver – it’s half the price!”

That’s not an issue at ODC, said Ed Field, executive director. “We are a state-of-the-art facility,” he noted, then suggested telling the difference is not always easy. That’s one of the challenges for the medical consumer these days.”

Field said should an abnormality be detected, “ODC performs biopsies five days a week where a hospital might only do biopsies one day a week.”

Last week there was a groundbreaking for a new hospital in Beaumont on Dowlen Road. Victory Medical Center can be described as a boutique hospital with eight patient rooms and four surgical suites designed specifically to accomplish complex spine procedures. The new hospital is a partnership between Victory Healthcare and the surgeons of Golden Triangle Neurocare.

Although Victory will operate as an out-of-network provider – meaning many procedures will be covered at reduced rates or not at all under some insurance plans – founder and CEO Robert N. Helms Jr. said that does not automatically translate into greater costs and cited the recent spinal surgery of his wife as an example.

“Had her case been done the normal way, she would have ended up with all kinds of hardware in her back and been hospitalized for at least four days. Under the technique that was used for her, they used a device called an AccuraScope. It’s from France, a very, very tiny scope with tremendous capabilities,” said Helms.

According to the literature, the AccuraScope procedure uses a live X-ray for guidance and a tiny incision to insert the small scope through a small incision in the skin and into a natural opening at the base of the spine. The surgeon then uses a number of instruments, including a laser, to shrink the damaged disc and relieve pressure on the spinal nerve. This procedure is usually completed in 30 to 40 minutes. Patients are returned to the recovery area and are usually discharged approximately one hour after the surgery.

Her husband said the experience of Mrs. Helms was a textbook case.

“They were able to repair three discs that she had damaged very badly,” he noted. “After her procedure, she remained in the hospital in the recovery room for about an hour, and another half hour to get her to the point where she was dressed and ready to go home – and I took her home,” he said.

Helms said the costs of the procedure were much less because conventional surgery could have easily required four days hospitalization. “Not only that, but the hardware that would have been installed in her back would have come fairly near the overall cost of the procedure, so it’s far, far more cost effective,” he said.

In addition, for most Medicare patients with a decent supplement policy, the out-of-network proviso would not make Victory Medical Services a prohibitively expensive option.

Business Journal editor James Shannon offers a weekly column of business news for readers of The Examiner. For more details, see the editions of the Business journal published monthly in Beaumont, Port Arthur and Greater Orange. Check out the blog at setxbiz.blogspot.com or e-mail james@beaumontbusinessjournal.com.