Ellenie Richardson’s soon to be newly minted mechanical engineering degree from University of Texas Permian Basin will send her straight into the workforce at XTO Energy, part of ExxonMobil, in her hometown of Midland.
Graduation will be at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Dec. 15 at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center.
A Midland native and Midland Classical Academy graduate, Richardson was set on a music career. A classically trained pianist, she planned to get a scholarship and go to music school, but at some point, she realized it was becoming “more of a job than a joy” and gave it up. She still plays and it’s her favorite thing to do aside from spending time with family and friends.
That was a difficult decision.
“But it kind of opened my eyes to other opportunities that I was able to pursue because something that I loved, something that I just kind of decided to keep as a love and not as a job. That’s kind of when engineering piqued my interest,” Richardson said.
At the same time, Richardson has always been mathematically minded and interested in problem solving.
“I’ve always been interested in how things are made structurally; just all the things that go into that, so it kind of piqued my interest,” she added.
Her job with XTO will be as a facilities engineer.
“I will be focusing mostly on pipeline starting out. I interned with them this past summer, and I was on the pipeline team. That involved a lot … hydraulic analysis on pipelines, just trying to understand how different fluids flow in the huge oil networks that we deal with here in the Permian Basin, and in their Delaware, New Mexico basins, is where I primarily was so I did a lot of hydraulic flow analysis in a flow simulation software. That was mainly what I focused on on the pipeline team was just trying to understand their oil networks better. It was very overwhelming at first, but it ended up being really, really cool to learn about. That’s what I’ll start out in and then I’ll move my way towards fixed equipment, so I’ll be working on pressure vessels, drums, things like that,” Richardson said.
Starting off at Midland College, she didn’t have a degree plan. Richardson was getting and starting to figure out what she wanted to do. She’d kind of heard about UTPB’s engineering program, but hadn’t really been interested in the field.
“I was on a really great scholarship that transferred over to UTPB, so I thought, hey, I should really take advantage of this and just continue over there at UTPB … Mainly, it was the scholarship opportunity that brought me here,” Richardson said.
But she has really enjoyed the program at UTPB.
“It’s very impressive. I’ve really enjoyed it. The small class sizes are probably … one of my favorite things about this program,” Richardson said.
The internship experience with XTO also had a huge impact. Richardson got that through a UTPB career fair which started the initial conversation with Exxon.
“I knew I would get some some good contacts from the career fair, but I wasn’t expecting a giant offer like that to come across my plate. When it did, of course, I accepted it. I had no idea what it would entail, but it was huge. It kind of helped me reaffirm my decision to stay in the Permian Basin and want to stay here because it gave me a really good look into what I would be doing, which is exactly what I’m going to start out in is just what I did my internship in. It’s really cool to have the knowledge and confidence going into it, already knowing what I’ll be starting out in because I was able to experience a dream internship. That’s been one of the coolest things that has come out of being in the engineering program so far. That’s my favorite,” Richardson said.
She is very excited about graduating.
“It’s kind of surreal for me because I’ve been in school for so long. It’s finally time to wrap up my college career. It’s really bittersweet because I’ve enjoyed all of the learning that’s come from being in my major and the friends that I’ve made. I’m super excited. I’m ready to finally apply all of this knowledge to my career path,” Richardson said.
She added that she would recommend the engineering program to anyone, even if they weren’t from the Permian Basin.
“I think that being a school in the Permian Basin is a really unique opportunity that a lot of people overlook. But it’s been awesome just because of the amount of opportunity, internship-wise and career-wise to get some type of experience in your field. I think it’s huge being in the Permian Basin. So yes, I would recommend it for people that aren’t from here. It’s a really great place to come and have a lot of experience opportunity provided,” Richardson said.
Richardson, 23, is married to a compressor engineer at CrownQuest Operating.
One of Richardson’s mechanical engineering professors, Salah Uddin, said when he teaches a challenging topic, even if other students started losing interest, he knew there would be one who kept following and that was Richardson.
“I bet she will be a great engineer, but don’t be just an engineer rather be a leader. Take initiative to lead the team in the right direction,” Uddin said in an email.
“I wish her all the best in the XTO career on pipelines, however, she would be a great resource for hardcore engineering calculations that not everyone is interested in,” he added.
