Chevron hands out $75,000 for STEM education

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PASCAGOULA, Miss. (WLOX) - Sixteen schools in Jackson and George counties are getting some extra help to educate students in science, technology engineering and math.

Thursday, Chevron handed out grants totaling $75,000 to schools to expand and support the “Project Lead the Way” program. PLTW is a hands-on curriculum with a goal of preparing students for STEM-related careers.

“More students are interested in engineering and different STEM fields, which of course to us is extremely important because many of our jobs at Chevron relate to science, engineering and math, so we feel like this is a win-win for not only our local area but for Mississippi as a whole,” said Amy Brandenstein, Chevron’s community affair representative.

Chevron’s partnership with PLTW has helped to bring more STEM classes to every school district in Jackson and George counties.

“It’s just helped our school support our type of students who are interested in engineering. We didn’t have an engineering program, so this is extremely important. It’s just ignited their excitement about the program, and it’s just very beneficial,” said Tammy Sampson, a ‘Project Lead the Way’ teacher at East Central High School.

“It’s helped me figure out how to program stuff and work with robots and just different things. Just something new,” said Javion Johnson, a student at Colmer Middle School.

Chevron has invested nearly $1 million to support the program in Mississippi. To date, more than 25,000 students have taken part in the course