Dear SEED Supporters and Volunteers:

What more can we say about our success in 2006 than, Wow!  SEED had a phenomenal year, and we would like to share some of the highlights.  A record number of employees registered as new volunteers—at a rate of 9 per week–and we welcome you to our team with hope that you can contribute to SEED in a way that is meaningful to you. SEED connected 37 new schools to the Internet and in cooperation with local partners helped establish computer labs in all of them through our School Network Program. We also supported 27 educational workshops around the world. These facts show the influence our dedicated volunteers can have on thousands of lives in a year.

When the concept of SEED was first conceived more than a decade ago, we wanted to create a channel for Schlumberger employees to make lasting contributions to their communities on the common ground of science education, technology, and learning. Never did any of us imagine that within so short a time we would achieve so much. Success has indeed come full circle for SEED and our thousands of passionate volunteers, teachers, students and supporters.

These students at a Malaysian workshop built a model showing the damaging effects of erosion due to deforestation.

The roots of our success derive from the project-based learning at the core of SEED activities, which focus first on identifying a problem to be solved within the local community. As a byproduct of this approach, participants in our educational programs develop a deep, personal understanding of related concepts across many different subject areas in an authentic and engaging way that can have lasting impact.

In one case, students who participated in a SEED workshop in Malaysia wanted to confront the local problem of deforestation. Their efforts led them to apply for a SEED Action Fund grant, which supports student projects that benefit their communities. Since receiving their grant last year, the students have raised money to fund the replanting of area forests, created and distributed fliers in their school, and convinced their principal to support tree planting around the school. We hope to see more students take advantage of Action Fund grants in 2007.

With so many dedicated volunteers and such valuable learning resources to share, we expect this year will prove to be the most successful year yet for SEED. Thank you for your continued involvement and commitment.

—The SEED Core Team: Annette, Bryan, Carlos, Ethan, Eya, Indira, Jim, Krysti, Love, Maria, Michael, Simone, Susan, Thierry, and Tom

Volunteer Workshops
Mar 23 & 30: Sugar Land
    (Part of DPStart course)
Apr 19–21: Mumbai, India

Facilitator Workshops
Mar 8–10: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Collaborative Workshops
Mar 11–16: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia