After an intensive internship with Liberty Engineering, Meinar “Grace” Sheila is going to work for the same company once she earns her bachelor’s in mechanical engineering degree from University of Texas Permian Basin Saturday.
Ceremonies are scheduled for 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. May 13 at the Midland County Horseshoe Arena & Pavilion, 2514 Arena Trail, Midland. Sheila will be a field engineer for Liberty. She was field engineer intern for three months in Henderson, Colo., Broomfield, Colo., Williston, N.D., Jal, N.M. and Midland.
The internship gave her an idea of how things worked in the field before she heads into an office. During the internship and in her new job, she’ll work two weeks and have two weeks off.
“The first month, I was just working outside with the crew, so a lot of physical labor. But then we took our weeks and headed to Williston, N.D., and that’s when I started being the engineer on site. I shadowed an engineer for a day or two and then just ran from there,” said Sheila, who goes by Grace.
“Then I finished off my third month here actually in Jal, N.M. and then I finished my job in Midland … and then back to Denver … It was pretty crazy,” Sheila said.
She was the only female intern out of 10.
“They were all from Colorado School of Mines, Montana Tech. They were mostly petroleum engineers, so I kind of felt intimidated at first. I’m a mechanical engineer. I barely knew what the process was like, but … they carried us from zero (and) definitely taught us everything. Everyone was very respectful; really nice,” Sheila said.
She and her colleagues lived in mancamps. If she was doing a night shift, she and the engineer would take a truck, go to the site, work for 12 hours, come back at 4 or 5 a.m. This was the first time she had worked those long hours.
“It’s also a big commute. We do that for two weeks straight,” Sheila said.
She added that living in a man camp wasn’t so bad. You don’t have to worry about food and if the camps are full, you’ll stay in a hotel and have a per diem.
“That’s when you have to figure out what am I going to eat because you have to bring … your lunch to site. It’s pretty interesting. Some of the older engineers, they bring their own food prep. They would cook at their own room. It’s pretty crazy how they survive,” Sheila said.
If you’re on a morning shift, it can be 6 p.m. by the time you get back and you have to be asleep by 8 or 9 p.m. When they have free time, she said some people hang out or go to Midland.
But she just slept, and if she wasn’t tired, she’d do her laundry or watch TV.
Sheila is from Indonesia and has lived in Bakersfield, Calif. Her father and sister are both petroleum engineers and her late big brother was a mechanical engineer.
She thought about pursuing political science or possibly journalism, but decided on engineering instead.
“I do really have a passion for math, physics and science, so I figured that would be a better choice,” Sheila said.
As for graduating, she said it’s “definitely been a ride” because she came to UTPB with zero credit hours and everyone else had 64 because they took dual credit courses.
“I’m an international student, so none of my credits transferred. Thankfully, I took the SATs, so I was able to get ahead with math and English. … My freshman year I finished my history — all the things people should have taken in high school. But I wanted to graduate on time and I couldn’t take any summer classes, mainly because I always wanted to go home for the summer, so I would load up five to six classes every semester,” Sheila said.
COVID made it hard to go home because of travel restrictions and she couldn’t stay in the dorms.
“Thankfully, my sister lives in Lubbock so I just moved in with her for the summer. Then housing opened again in 2021 and I was able to go home that Thanksgiving. (In) the summer, I went home again. But last summer I didn’t go home because of the internship,” she said.
She said the only family she expects at graduation are her sister and her husband. But she has support from her fiance and his family who live in Odessa.
Sheila praised the program at UTPB.
“It’s definitely really great. My sister went to a big school, Oklahoma University. I would talk to her like I’m doing these great, incredible opportunities with organizations and just special care from the professors. I know basically everyone on the faculty and they know us as students. They really care about your success … It’s really not hard to approach professors, whereas at other campuses, you have to wait for office hours; you can barely get an email back. But here, it’s really hands-on. It’s like family, I guess,” she added.
The students are also close.
“We always try to succeed together. Some of my friends that are graduating with me, I’ve taken almost all of my engineering courses with them and we’d always get together, study together before our exams, do projects together. It’s pretty cool,” Sheila said.
When she wasn’t in class, she was Vice President for Upsilon Tau Pi Beta Engineering Honors Society in the UTPB Chapter, Student Senator for Mechanical Engineering Seat for UTPB Student Government Association, Social Vice President for Theta ETA Sorority, and a member of UTPB’s Society of Women Engineers. She also was Homecoming Queen.
Sheila also is part of an engineering ambassadors group and works part-time at the UTPB Student Success Center as a tutor for math, engineering, and physics courses.
Kamryn Wesson, communications/recruitment specialist at the College of Engineering, admires Sheila.
“It has been an honor to work with Grace as her advisor for the Engineering Ambassador Program this semester. Her hard work and dedication to success, despite any challenge, is contagious and inspires those around her. I know that she will make an impact in the lives of many others as a mechanical engineer,” Wesson said.
