ExxonMobil employee match brings total gift near $250,000
Educational programs at Lamar University received nearly $250,000 in support from ExxonMobil in 2015. The funding supports a variety of programs in engineering, science and business and includes $140,500 in matching gifts.
ExxonMobil Beaumont Refinery Manager Fernando Salazar presented the check to LU President Kenneth Evans and Srinivas Palanki, dean of the College of Engineering.
Beyond ExxonMobil's contributions, employees, retirees and their families contribute their own time and money to charitable organizations. In 2014, U. S. employees and retirees donated more than $19.4 million to colleges, universities, and charitable organizations through ExxonMobil's matching gift programs and ExxonMobil Foundation contributed more than $34.4 million by matching employees' and retirees' gifts.
“ExxonMobil is an outstanding corporate partner with Lamar University,” said Juan Zabala, Lamar University’s vice president for advancement. “Employees of ExxonMobil have taken advantage of the corporation’s very generous 3-to-1 matching gift program to benefit the university. ExxonMobil matching gifts to Lamar University total more than $1.2 million since 1998, Zabala said.
“ExxonMobil’s generosity is vital to many programs that support education in science, technology, engineering, math and business. Countless Lamar University students can credit their interest and ultimate success in these fields to the generous support of ExxonMobil, its employees and retirees.”
ExxonMobil’s higher education initiatives focus on supporting programs that improve teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The corporation also supports diversity-based education program and professional societies like the National Society of Black Engineers, Society of Women Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering.
ExxonMobil support in 2015 includes: LU’s STAIRSTEP program which recruits, retains and transitions undergraduate students to careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics; the College of Engineering’s Bridging the Process Control, Troubleshooting and Optimization Gaps between Academia and Industry project; the College of Engineering’s student Ambassador Program; the Lamar Introduction to Engineering Summer Program, which introduces middle school students to engineering and STEM concepts through hands-on learning; the Lamar University Early Identification Program that identifies freshmen engineering students with the potential to intern at ExxonMobil Beaumont.
More broadly, ExxonMobil helps students throughout the region learn science through their support of Lamar University’s Teaching Environmental Science in the Three Rivers’ Watersheds program, now in its 20th year. The field-based, graduate-level summer institute introduces the region’s early childhood-12 grade teachers to environmental issues, problems and solutions through first-hand experience and equips them to bring these experiences to their classrooms.
LU’s College of Business ExxonMobil Executive in Residence Program brings business leaders to the campus to interact with undergraduate and graduate students, as well as the college’s faculty.
