OSU Senior Pat Moore guest blogs for EID on the incredible opportunities being afforded to college graduates thanks to shale development:

"My name is Pat Moore and I am a senior civil engineering student and co-founding Vice President of the Buckeye Shale Energy Organization (BSEO) at The Ohio State University. I am from the Cleveland suburb of Chagrin Falls, but my extended family resides in the Youngstown area. Such a background allowed me to relate to fellow classmates Drew Janek (Secretary), Vince Melillo (President), and Alex Sava (Treasurer), whom are all from Youngstown suburbs and are officers in BSEO. The interest they exhibited in the Utica Shale play ultimately influenced me to want to get involved with the industry and to found our organization to educate and create networking opportunities for students here in Ohio.

With the economy still battling its way to recovery, finding a job is pretty tough; especially in the Buckeye State. Recent college graduates with little to no work experience are enduring the greatest hardship of all, as the pressures of student loans and interest rates continue to build during the job search. Ohio’s somber economy seems to be in the need of a savior, and the truth is that the answer is located here in Ohio several thousand feet below the surface.

The Utica Shale play has created quite a buzz in the state of Ohio with its projection of stable and safe job creation, leading to an increase in investments of major corporations. According to the US Chamber of Commerce, shale development is projected to bring 143,600 new jobs to the industry by 2020 in the state of Ohio. Effects of this job creation outside of the oil and gas field supports growth in the transportation, health care, construction, manufacturing, professional, scientific and technical sectors. As a reaction to such projections, Utica investments surged in 2012 including steel mills, chemical processing plants, and pipeline construction in preparation for the future growth of the industry in Ohio by companies such as Chesapeake and BP. This influx of investments and job outlook points to a bright future for unemployed Ohioans and recent college graduates."

READ THE REST: http://www.eidohio.org/osu-student-sees-future-in-shale/