Brooke Ruff is standing in a basement lab surrounded by cinderblock walls with no windows, beneath industrial pipes crisscrossing the ceiling. She has five hours of experiment work ahead of her, checking Excel spreadsheets and reviewing safety manuals. Depending on her working group’s project goals for the day, she might be collecting data, checking valves or adjusting water levels.

And she is smiling.

“As much as I love this environment, I’m really looking forward to the renovation,” the senior chemical engineering major from Montgomery, Texas, says. “I’m just happy that our lab space is growing with the energy industry, that this company is investing in me and my education.”

The company is Valero Energy Corporation. The investment is over $2 million. And the education Ruff is talking about—the hands-on, scaled-down, sometimes duct-taped education that happens in the Unit Operations Laboratory of Sarkeys Energy Center at OU’s Gallogly College of Engineering—is about to transform in ways the School of Sustainable Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering has never seen.

In November, the OU Board of Regents approved renaming the soon-to-be renovated space the Valero Energy Unit Ops Laboratory, recognizing the San Antonio-based company’s commitment to invest in the next generation. The project will replace flooring, ceilings, lighting, HVAC and plumbing infrastructure. Aging equipment will be replaced. Industrial fluorescent fixtures will give way to daylight-style LEDs.

Glass panels will be installed along the corridor walls so visiting prospective students and their families will be able to observe the work being done without interrupting a session in progress. The lab will become a spotlight for the engineering program and Valero’s shared commitment to student success.

Valero President and CEO Lane Riggs, OU ’88 BS chemical engineering, says the lab looks the same today as it did when he was a student. To inspire future innovators, Lane recognizes OU needs modernized labs that also visually represent the great education Gallogly College delivers.

“Valero’s operational excellence depends on teamwork and alignment, getting the right people into the right jobs, and we know through this partnership with OU that graduates will have the facilities to reach their potential,” Riggs says. 

Every student who graduates with a Chemical Engineering degree passes through this space—two semesters at a minimum. Juniors take the Unit Operations course in the spring; seniors follow with Design Lab. Over decades, thousands of graduates have learned to operate separation columns, heat exchangers and fluid mechanics equipment in the lab before stepping into careers across the energy industry.

“Valero’s gift is the most impactful and transformative infrastructure improvement for our school since we moved to this building,” says Dimitrios V. Papavassiliou, director of the school.

The renovation goes beyond aesthetics. Lab experiments are designed so that students narrow the gap between theoretical equations and physical reality—and do so in teams. Groups of three or four rotate roles each session: one collects data, another records, another manages valves and flow controls. The space enables learning in a replicated work environment, a dynamic that will be enhanced by Valero’s support.

“The environment forces us to do something we’re not yet good at,” says Ruff, who serves as president of OU’s chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and secured a summer internship in the energy industry. “It forces us to communicate with our team, to ask for help.”

That group structure—learning to collaborate under pressure using industrial-scale equipment—is precisely what energy companies like Valero need. Ruff discovered this firsthand when she began looking for career opportunities.

Ruff says companies are seeking a combination of technical expertise and leadership skills. “They want to know, ‘Is this person going to be able to communicate on a team? Is this person going to push the company in a better direction?’ ”

After students complete the junior-level course, they interview better, Papavassiliou confirms. Students have seen the equipment, operated it. They understand the connection between a solved equation and a functioning process—and can talk about both with confidence.

“A lot of the time, engineers in their first two years of college think, ‘What am I doing with my degree?’ ” Ruff says. “Having a lab where you’re working with real-life, scaled-down machines builds confidence. When you get to a job or internship, you aren’t scared. You just dive right in and show what you’re capable of.”

The majority of OU graduates with chemical engineering bachelor’s degrees go directly into industry. For Valero—considered the world’s premier independent refiner and leading profitable producer of low-carbon transportation fuels—the connection between its investment and the future workforce is clear. OU has long been a source of engineering talent for the company, and the corporation’s investment strengthens that relationship in a way students will recognize every time they walk into a space that bears the Valero name. 

The renovation enhances Valero’s partnership with OU and its investment in the next generation, helping shape a workforce ready to meet the demands of tomorrow, Riggs says.

The renovated lab will be finished during Ruff’s final year, which means the next cohort of students will be the first to experience it fully. She is fine with that.

“It’s almost as if all the past students’ work has been paying off,” she says. “Now Valero is giving us the opportunity to have an even better laboratory system and more job prospects.”

She pauses.

“This company is investing in us.” 

Brian Brus writes for the University of Oklahoma Foundation.